Bitter greens are among my favorite things to eat and cook with. They are versatile, toothsome, and bring contrast to every dish. When I was a child, it was quite the opposite. I suppose there’s nothing noteworthy about a kid turning their nose up at anything bitter. It’s part of biology after all. Our aversion to bitterness at a young age is an evolutionary feature; it supposedly keeps us from ingesting poisons. We are drawn to sweetness because it usually indicates a high-calorie count – something we need when growing. But we tend to get over this as we enter adolescence and that was certainly the case with me. I don’t precisely remember when rapini captured my attention but it has been my ride-or-die for at least a decade. And today’s Rapini Linguine is my love letter to the green. So let’s get romantic and make this beauty.
