Anyone can tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower, right? Broccoli is green; cauliflower is white. Broccoli comes on long branching stems; cauliflower has a stalk so short you can barely see it. Well, yes and no. The family tree is as tangled and confusing as European royalty, and there’s no Debrett’s Peerage to help you sort things out. In fact, so tangled is the lineage that scientists are still scrambling to determine exactly who is a broccoli and who is a cauliflower.
Both broccoli and cauliflower are domesticated versions of a wild cabbage that grows in coastal regions of Europe. As such, they share a common genus and species: Brassica oleracea. Generally, broccoli (B. oleracea italica) is typified by its massive collections of immature flower buds that appear atop one central stalk as well as several side shoots. Cauliflower (B. oleracea botrytis) is recognized by its short central stem and even bigger collection of what botanists describe as “aborted” flower buds—“aborted” because fewer than 10 percent of them will ever flower.
So far so good—until you begin to explore outside the United States or become curious about any of the many plants that fall somewhere in between those two extremes. In Italy, for example, the plant they call broccoli is much closer in appearance to what we call cauliflower. Certainly, it is green, but a much paler shade (there is even a white variant called broccoli bianco), and its branch structure is short and squat. Indeed, the branching vegetable we call broccoli is much closer to what the Italians call broccoletti, which is not to be confused with the new American variety we call Broccolini.
And then there are all of the broccoli-cauliflower intermediary cousins. You may have seen one called broccoflower. It has been tried repeatedly but never seems to catch on. This is actually much closer in appearance to what the Italians call broccoli Calabrese, with a pale green head made of tightly bunched buds. There is also the oddly shaped Romanesco, with its buds bunched in tight cones, looking like a vegetable designed by Gaudí. Cauliflower has its share of oddities as well, including one with a purple head. So confusing is it all that several years ago a team of British researchers who tried to sort it out determined that what is usually called purple cauliflower is actually a broccoli and that Romanesco is actually a cauliflower. Current work is focused on examining the plants’ DNA.
Cooks don’t need DNA to tell the difference; we can just take a taste. Broccoli is green, wild and assertive. Cauliflower is nutty, subtle and quiet. The taste of broccoli will come through no matter what other ingredients you throw at it, but it will shrink from extended cooking. Cauliflower’s flavor is more malleable and seems to deepen and become richer the longer it cooks. In part this difference in character is directly traceable to their respective amounts of certain chemicals that, when the vegetables are cooked for very long, form sulfur compounds. Broccoli is up at the top of the sulfur ranking—right behind cabbage—but cauliflower is way down at the bottom. Combine that with the way chlorophyll-rich broccoli changes from green to olive drab with overcooking, and you have two vegetables that, though very closely related genetically, need to be treated very differently.
Broccoli should be cooked quickly and used in ways that show off its bright color, verdant flavor and crisp texture. Use broccoli in salads (steamed or blanched first, please; you’re not running a steak house salad bar), as a side dish or in pasta toppings. Broccoli is one of the great flavor matches for olive oil and lemon, and, truth be told, that simple treatment is difficult to beat. You can make it a bit more complicated if you like: sauté minced garlic, red pepper flakes, capers or salted anchovies (or all of the above) in the oil first. Add toasted pine nuts or slivered olives, or the very Sicilian toasted bread crumbs, at the end. A salty sheep’s or goat’s milk cheese works well, too, such as pecorino Romano or feta.
Whereas broccoli dishes should be vibrant and immediate, cauliflower is a vegetable that repays more careful cooking. There is a world of flavor in cauliflower, if only you have the patience to discover it. You can cook it quickly and use it in almost any wild way you’d use broccoli. Or you can cook it slowly until it is nearly melting in texture and transform it into one of the most elegant vegetables on the planet. Prepared this way, cauliflower is wonderful combined with butter and cream. Bake it in a custard, and you get a dish of almost shivering delicacy, with a deep, profoundly earthy flavor. This is one of fall’s most regal vegetable creations, and it’s an amazing base for pairing with some flavors that might surprise you. Despite its down-market image, cauliflower is amazingly good with caviar and may be even better with white truffles. (The perfume of white truffles is formed by chemical compounds related to some found in cauliflower.)
To get that really rich, deep cauliflower flavor for a custard, you need to cook it thoroughly. The timing is important: the longer you cook it, the more powerful the mustardy flavors will be. You want them to be pronounced enough that they will cut through the cream, cheese and eggs, but not so strong that they become obnoxious. When the cauliflower is done, it should be just soft enough that you can crush a floret between your fingers. You can boil cauliflower, but steaming is better. With boiling, the cauliflower taste is muted. The vegetable exchanges liquid with the cooking water, losing flavor and picking up only a little saltiness in exchange. (You do salt your cooking water, don’t you?) Steaming keeps more of the taste intact because the vegetable never touches the liquid.
What about all of those confusing “intermediate” brassicas, the ones between broccoli and cauliflower? How do you prepare them? The best thing to do is assign them to one end of the spectrum or the other. Forget botany and use two simple criteria to do this: curd and color. Curd refers to the texture of the unopened flower buds in the crown. If it is truly “curdy”—tightly grained and almost sandy in texture—cook it like cauliflower. If the buds are distinct and separate, cook it like broccoli. Similarly, if the heads are dark green, they must be cooked like broccoli to avoid the “olive drab” syndrome. If they are lighter in color—white or pale yellow—you can safely cook them for an extended period. The various bunching broccoli types—broccoli rabe (also called raab, rape and rapini, depending on who is selling it) and the new one alternately called Broccolini and Asparation—definitely take brief cooking (and, because of their bitterness, are brilliant with sausages). The curious-looking Romanesco can take longer cooking if it is not a too-dark green (some varieties are).
Once scorned by the general public, broccoli and cauliflower have been enjoying dramatically increasing popularity (and prices) over the past several years. The value of the cauliflower crop in the United States increased almost 40 percent between 2001 and 2003, and that of broccoli increased almost 30 percent. Even so, the United States still grows more than twice as much broccoli as cauliflower. Although the acreage planted has remained fairly constant, there has been a boom in the sales of precut cauliflower and particularly of precut broccoli.
Broccoli
WHERE IT’S GROWN: Almost all of the broccoli grown in the United States comes from California. A cool-weather crop, it is harvested in the southern Imperial Valley during the fall and winter and then moves progressively north to Salinas in the summer. A small amount is imported, mostly from Mexico. Broccoli is in the market year-round, but its prime season is from late fall to early winter.
HOW TO CHOOSE: There are two keys to picking broccoli. Remember that the flower buds are supposed to be immature. Reject any broccoli that shows any signs of little yellow flowers. (The flower buds are also where decay will begin. Look carefully for any soft or slimy spots.) Also check the stalk: try to pierce it with your thumbnail. As broccoli matures, some of its sugars are converted to lignin, a woody material. Broccoli that was picked too late will be tough and lack sweetness.
HOW TO STORE: Broccoli is one of the most sensitive vegetables you can buy; it spoils very quickly. Try to use it the same day you buy it. Failing that, treat it like lettuce—keep it tightly wrapped in the crisper drawer.
HOW TO PREPARE: Separate the heads from the stalk because they cook at very different rates. But don’t discard the stalk, even if it’s a little woody. Peel it down to the pale core, and it’s delicious. Giving broccoli that’s a little tired a 30-minute soak in ice water will help crisp it.
ONE SIMPLE DISH: Blanch broccoli heads until they are just tender, then chill them. Just before serving, make a vinaigrette with olive oil, fresh lemon juice and a little minced garlic. Toss the broccoli heads in the vinaigrette and season with salt to taste. If you want a little fancier presentation, you can arrange the heads flower side down in a bowl and then invert it onto a serving plate.
Cauliflower
WHERE IT’S GROWN: Almost all of the cauliflower grown in the United States comes from California, at the same times and from the same places as broccoli.
HOW TO CHOOSE: Cauliflower heads should be a pale creamy color. This is achieved by wrapping the heads with the leaves. Some varieties do this naturally; in others the leaves have to be tied in place by growers. Cauliflower heads that have not been carefully tended will show “sunburned” dark spots. If there are only a few, this is cosmetic. But if they cover a larger area, it can be an opening for decay. Reject any heads that show signs of physical damage, as cauliflower spoils quickly.
HOW TO STORE: Like broccoli, cauliflower is extremely perishable. Keep it tightly wrapped in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Try to use it the same day you buy it.
HOW TO PREPARE: Separate the heads from the stalk and break the heads into bite-size florets. The stalk can be chopped and cooked, but because it is usually so small, this isn’t as important as with broccoli.
ONE SIMPLE DISH: Cauliflower is amazing roasted. Break it into florets and toss them with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Dump them into a baking pan and roast at 400 degrees until they’re lightly browned and tender.