What Is Broccolini? How to Enjoy the Vibrant Green Vegetable

Broccolini, we love you and your slender stalks, your vibrant green, and your sweet, mild flavor. Easy to cook—simply toss a tidy handful straight into a steamer basket, then lift the lid a few minutes later to find it perfectly al dente and ready to eat. But what is Broccolini? Is it just baby broccoli? How is it different from regular broccoli? Why does it have so many different names? Let's unpack the backstory of this hybrid vegetable belonging to the Brassicaceae family and then get down to how to prep and cook it.

What Is Broccolini?

Whether you call it Broccolini, sprouting broccoli, tender stem broccoli, or baby broccoli, this miniature version goes by many names. But what exactly is Broccolini? With such an Italian name, its origins might surprise you.

The name Broccolini is a registered trademark. That's right. It should be Broccolini®. Here's the story: In the late 1980s, the idea for a new vegetable was born in Japan. The Sakata Seed Corporation, a leading broccoli seed grower and exporter, wanted a crop with a longer harvest season and that was less fussy about growing conditions than broccoli (which hates being hot). The result was a cross between two varieties of Brassica oleracea. The first is Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra, or Chinese kale, whose stalks are succulent and very leafy, with diminutive, loose florets. It's relatively heat-tolerant. The second is familiar old broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. italica, with stout, tougher stalks and enormous, tight heads. After years of experiments, a hand-pollinated hybrid was named "Asparation" because of its tender asparagus-like stems.

Thanks to Sakata's California subsidiary, Asparation seeds made their way into the Californian soil of a small family-run farm and shipper, Sanbon Inc., for further testing. It failed its heat test spectacularly, disliking heat as much as broccoli, but it tasted delicious and was very pretty. By the late 1990s, Sanbon was sending samples to fancy food stores. Sakata wanted to expand the reach of Asparation, which is how Mann Packing, the biggest broccoli shipper in the world and the biggest buyer of Sakata's broccoli seed, began growing it in 1998 in cool-climate Salinas. The only problem was that they wanted a catchier name. Broccolini was coined at a dinner party by Deb Nucci, the wife of the company's then-chief executive officer Joe Nucci.

Broccolini vs. Broccoli Rabe

While there are reasons (see above) to confuse Broccolini with broccoli or to think of it as a baby broccoli, it isn't close kin to broccoli rabe. Broccoli rabe is part of the Brassica rapa family and more closely related to turnips and rapini. Its flavor is also more bitter and assertive.

How to Prep Broccolini

Another reason to love Broccolini is that it's so easy to prep. It has small florets, long stalks, and a few small leaves—all of which are edible, so there's nothing much to trim off or peel away.

Simply wash the Broccolini under cold running water, then trim the stems by about a half-inch, and it's ready to cook.

How to Use Broccolini

While Broccolini is delicious on its own, it also pairs beautifully with a variety of flavors and cooking techniques. Here are some ways to enjoy it:

• Steaming Broccolini is the quickest way to enjoy it in its purist form. It takes about 8 minutes to cook. A drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, roasted sesame oil, or butter, is all it needs.
• Another option is to drop the just-cooked stems into the pan sauce you are finishing, it's an effortless pop of green and an almost-instant vegetable tonic.
• Finish cooking it in the hot skillet of the roast chicken you are pulling out of the oven.
• Add steamed Broccolini to a Sichuan mapo tofu.
• Try Broccolini sautéed with sesame, ginger, and soy.
• Sample it folded with feta into a vegetable galette.
• Broil it with chicken in a spicy peanut sauce.
• Steam it, then stuff it into portable vegetable melts with a basil aioli.
• Toss with peppers and artichokes as the topping for a deep-dish pizza.
• Add it late in cooking to pad see ew.
• Blanch the Broccolini or serve it raw; either way it's delicious dipped into a luscious bagna cauda.