Broccoli/Broccolini

This soup derives its body and rich flavor from pureed broccoli stems and florets.

When you’ve had enough sandwiches made of leftover turkey, try this colorful stir-fry.

Give leftover beef (or pork) a well-balanced makeover by adding bell pepper, broccoli, and whole-grain pasta. The result is an easy one-skillet meal.

A creamy Alfredo-type sauce binds layers of pasta, vegetables, and cheeses in this vegetarian lasagna. No tomatoes allowed!

For a rainy-night supper, serve this “sunshine on a plate.”

Roasting brings out the best flavor in both the broccoli florets and the onion slices in this side dish.

This main-dish salad, topped with a sesame-wasabi dressing, is an interesting combination of colors, textures, aromas, and flavors.

Crisp, colorful vegetables are the highlights of this salad. Try it for a summertime picnic for a group or for the next family reunion.

This pretty, quick-to-prepare, and divine-tasting salad is perfect for potlucks and summer lunches. Vary the vegetables and try other vinaigrettes in this chapter (pages 96–97) for different flavors.

R. B.’s childhood campout hobo packet memories have inspired many of our favorite side dishes. He’s put just about every vegetable combo imaginable in a foil packet on the grill. Without added water, vegetables steam in their own juices and roast beautifully over the direct high heat of the grill. Even better and easier than the grill is the even heat of a hot oven. If there were a hobo packet merit badge, R. B. would have definitely earned it.

This dish is the Italian equivalent of the French grand aïoli. In France, a colorful assortment of vegetable crudités is accompanied by a large bowl of garlicky homemade mayonnaise. In Italy, instead of dipping the vegetables into aïoli, they dunk them into a bowl of bagna cauda, a “warm bath” of garlic and anchovy simmering in butter and olive oil. In this dish, I toss my favorite winter vegetables with the bagna cauda and pair them with a meaty Australian bass, barramundi. Feel free to adapt the recipe to your location, season, and cravings. If you’re in the mood for asparagus or potatoes, add them to the mix. And if you can’t find barramundi, this dish is delicious when made with another bass, snapper, or halibut.

The amount of oil called for in this recipe might shock you, but to get the rapini nicely sautéed and coated in all the flavors of the chile, shallot, and thyme, it really is necessary. If you don’t want to end up eating all that oil, you can remove the rapini from the pan with tongs, leaving the oil behind. Or you can serve it all together, and let the olive oil pool beneath the rapini on the plate. Of course, I can never resist sopping up the oil with a crusty hunk of bread!