Well, that’s a turnip for the books!
The latest must-have item in top restaurants? Turnip tops
THEY look like garden scraps fit only for pet rabbits or the compost heap.
But this is the new trendy ingredient exciting top chefs and fashionable restaurants… turnip tops.
Called ‘cime di rapa’, the leafy winter greens – a staple peasant food in southern Italy – are now featuring on the gourmet menus of upmarket restaurants both in Dublin and London.
Celebrity chef Rachel Allen is a fan, and speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week from her Ballymaloe Cookery School, she said: ‘Turnip tops are great in soups. The Italians have always valued them as great, nutritious greens.
‘They are delicious to replace another green like spinach in a soup or to chop finely and add into a brothy soup just a minute or two before serving. They’re also great in a pesto-type sauce.’
One Dublin gastropub, The Legal Eagle, lists ‘roasted-buttered turnip tops’ on its menu. Chef and proprietor Ken Doherty of Assassination Custard in Dublin, previously urged people not to waste this delicious, if overlooked, vegetable. ‘When Gwen [his partner] and I travelled, we saw how people in other countries don’t waste vegetables; turnip tops and dandelion leaves are prized ingredients in Turkey and Italy,’ said Mr Doherty. Celebrity chef Giorgio Locatelli also uses turnip tops and ear-shaped pasta to make a classic dish from the Puglia area of Italy called orecchiette con cime di rapa.
‘Turnip tops is traditional peasant food,’ he said. ‘People in northern Italy tease those from Puglia about eating turnip greens. But they can be delicious.’
His Michelin-starred restaurant, Locanda Locatelli in London’s West End, also has turnip tops on the menu. ‘It’s definitely become very fashionable, especially as people are eating more vegetables,’ the TV chef said.