How is arugula used?

Answer 1

Fresh arugula is available year-round. When buying, look for crispy, green, young leaves. Field-grown arugula may be sold with roots attached. Cut open the bunch and trim the lower stems. Discard yellow, wilted, bruised leaves. Avoid flowered bunches, as the leaves are tough and bitter in taste. Store the herb as you do other greens like spinach. Place it in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator set at high relative humidity.

Place the leaves in a large bowl of cold water and swish thoroughly as you do with other greens like spinach in order to remove sand, soil, and dirt. Then drain the water, and gently pat dry using a moisture-absorbent cloth before use in cooking. Young tender arugula leaves are excellent in salads and Sandwiches. Fresh greens are used in soups, stews, juices, and cooked as a vegetable. You can prepare Italian-style arugula pasta or enjoy garlic toasts dipped in leek-arugula vichyssoise.

Arugula has a rich, peppery taste and an exceptionally pungent flavor for a leafy green. It is frequently used in salads, often mixed wi Save th other greens in a mesclun. It is also used raw with pasta in northern Italy and in western Slovenia (especially in the Slovenian Istria). In Italy, raw arugula is often added to pizzas just before the baking period ends or immediately afterwards, so that it will not wilt in the heat. It is also used cooked in Puglia, in Southern Italy, to make the pasta dish cavatiéddi, in which large amounts of coarsely chopped arugula are added to pasta seasoned with a homemade reduced tomato sauce, as well as in many recipes in which it is added, chopped, to sauces and cooked dishes. In the Slovenian Littoral, it is often combined with boiled potatoes or used in a soup. A sweet, peppery digestive alcohol called rucolino is made from arugula on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples. This liqueur is a local specialty enjoyed in small quantities following a meal in the same way as a limoncello or grappa.

In Brazil, where its use is widespread, arugula is eaten raw in salads. In Egypt, it is eaten with ful medames for breakfast. In West Asia and Northern India, arugula seeds are pressed to make taramira oil, used in pickling and (after aging to remove acridity) as a salad or cooking oil. The seed cake is also used as animal feed.