Farm Fresh-Broccoli Rabe





Broccoli Rabe

 My husband is one of those people who simply cannot say no to door to door solicitors. He has no problem hanging up on cold callers, and tossing away mail advertisements. However, in the event that someone should knock on our door and he is face to face with a solicitor, its over. He'll sign up for newspapers, magazines and once even fell for a car wash scam. He generously wrote a check to two boys as donation for their "new baseball uniforms". They were to return and wash our cars in the morning. Needless to say they never came. I sure hope they're enjoying those uniforms! We found our later this is a scam and there was no team or car wash. I promise there is a point to this.

The other day his naivete or we can call it "kindness" paid off however. A knock on our door led to him surprising me with yet another subscription except this time (before I had a chance to intervene and prevent him from being taken yet again) it was for this http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php. A service thanks to which I now have a gorgeous box of organic fruits and vegetables dropped at my door at 7am every other Wednesday! Finally, he fell for something AWESOME vs ridiculous. For once I was happy he opened the door when I was not around to protect him.



Farm Fresh Strawberries

 The best part of Farm Fresh To You, is that all the fruits and vegetables seriously taste like fruits and vegetables should AND they are 100% certified organic. Huge difference from the local supermarket produce that is often so bland and tasteless it makes me want to cry. You can choose the exact items you wish to have or you may order the "mixed" box. I ADORE the surprise element of the mixed and find myself getting so excited about what will be in my lovely brown box next. Not to mention the health benefits for our family as well as the endless possibilities of cooking with certain vegetables I've never used before. Just awesome.



Sweet Peppers and Radish




The most sweet blueberries I have EVER had!

Yesterdays box contained blueberries, red grapes, carrots, radishes, sweet peppers, butter lettuce, fuji apples, asparagus, avocados, mushrooms, corn and the STAR broccoli rabe aka rapini amongst a number of other names it can be called. I was so thrilled to see the rapini. I've tasted this wonderful vegetable in pastas and soups, but have never had the pleasure of cooking with it. So I decided that this evening I would experiment with broccoli rabe for the first time and use it in pasta with sun dried tomato and spinach sausage, garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

The result was a colorful, spicy, tangy and rich dish that was full of bold flavors. Very comforting and warm dish. The rapini did shine as the star for nothing could overpower its gorgeous color and spicy alive flavor. By mixing a bit of the water I boiled the rapini in prior to stirring it in to the pasta, with the pan juices from the sausage and garlic, a silky sauce was born. The parmigiano tied everything together and as most cheese does, elevated the dish to great heights. YUM!

Rotini with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage