My Favorite Cold Weather Antipasto

Kale, you ask? If you overdid it with kale when it got trendy over the last decade, I pray thee, give kale another chance. After all, we know how to make it delicious in Italy, where it has been eaten for centuries.

Wait till you try this! It will actually make you crave something healthy. Recipe below...

Great as an appetizer or as a healthy snack or light meal during the winter!

What the Tuscans call Cavolo Nero, black cabbage, we often refer to as dinosaur kale or lacerato kale in English. It isn't the more common, curly one, and is a traditional ingredient here in Tuscany, not a passing fad.

It is widely used in Tuscan recipes, being a key ingredient in Ribollita soup.

Though fundamental to Ribollita, cavolo nero is great alone, served raw in a salad or cooked over crostini. Cavolo nero is best when in season- during the late fall and winter. The colder it is outside, the more tender the cavolo nero will be. That's really the only complication. There are no excuses to avoid making this recipe! It is super easy. If you can't find dinosaur kale where you shop, substitute it with regular kale (it will be almost as good!).

It isn't easy to find cavolo nero outside of Tuscany. 

Years ago during my new year's stay in Venice with some of my American friends, I looked all over until finally finding a man in the erberia who sold cavolo nero.

My friends were skeptical when they saw me preparing it (especially when they smelled the pungent boiling cabbage smell), but raved as soon as they tried the crostini with cavolo nero. There were no leftovers!


What you'll need:

• A pound or two of dinosaur kale
• Big pot of boiling water with a lid
• Pork fat to enhance flavor or
• ...if you don't eat pork, use a parmigiano reggiano rind (you can even buy these for about $2 at many Whole Foods and other specialty food shops). This trick is great in many soups, too.
• About 5 black pepper corns, whole
• Crusty bread. The bread in Tuscany has no salt, good luck with that elsewhere! Otherwise a nice ciabatta does the trick.
• Fresh Tuscan Olive Oil (some links below if you need a new bottle)

What to do:

Are you ready to see how easy this is?

• Put on a big pot of water.
• As you're waiting for the water to boil, clean the kale by shucking the leaves off of ribs. 

Leaves above, unwanted ribs below.

• Once you've shucked the leaves off, rinse the kale well to remove any dirt.
• By this point, the water should be boiling. Throw in the kale, a small piece of pork fat or parm rind, and a couple of pepper corns.

The pot will seem to overflow, but as soon as the kale
hits the hot water it will shrink down.
Give it a quick stir before covering.

• Stir, reduce heat so it doesn't over boil, cover with lid, and set a timer for about 15 minutes.
• When timer goes off, stir and check the kale. Is it super soft and floppy? If so, it is ready. If not, leave it to cook another 10-15 minutes.
• Toast or grill 1cm thick slices of crusty bread.

• Drizzle with olive oil, then lightly rub a raw clove of garlic over the bread.
• Drain the kale (optional: save the water to make a nutritious risotto tomorrow or later today).
• Once drained well, but still nice and hot, serve the kale over the bread and sprinkle with salt and pepper and drown those little guys in Tuscan olive oil.  Don't be shy. Tuscan olive oil is good for you!
• Serve hot, in other words eat them asap.
• Buon Appetito!

And I've got great news, I've spotted this type of kale recently in the US, sold at Trader Joe's pre-chopped and labeled "Tuscan Kale" the last I was home a year ago.

Grab some kale there or from a farmer's market, and if you don't have a respectable bottle of oil in your house here are two 2020 harvest oils:

Search no further. I've found 2 great 2020 harvest oils directly on Amazon. Please note: I will get a tiny commission (but it doesn't raise the listed price). I've chosen these for quality and freshness, and reasonable pricing for their category: fresh, early harvest, extra virgin olive oil of Tuscany. Enjoy!

 

Do you have any kale or dinosaur kale recipes you'd like to share? Please do! Add a comment or link below or on the Taste Florence facebook page (click on the facebook page at top of blog).

Originally posted in 2011 but updated in 2021.