broccoli rabe

noun

-ˌräb 

variants or less commonly broccoli raab

-ˌräb 

-ˌrab

or broccoli rab

-ˌräb 

-ˌrab

: a garden brassica (Brassica rapa ruvo) that is related to the turnip and produces edible leafy branching stalks and compact clusters of yellow florets

called also rapini

Examples of broccoli rabe in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Italian sandwich is made with 14-hour roasted pork, broccoli rabe and provolone cheese. —Kaitlyn Rosati, New York Daily News, 11 Dec. 2024

The Neapolitan-style pie is topped with tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, broccoli rabe and black olives. —Sonal Dutt, Peoplemag, 26 Sep. 2024

Vegetables with a higher moisture content like zucchini, chard, kale, broccoli rabe or tomatoes can be added to the pan toward the end of cooking. —Carole Kotkin, Miami Herald, 10 June 2024

Its abundant pork, stuffed between crusty semolina bread with pops of green from the broccoli rabe makes this sandwich a 10 out of 10 in the looks department. —Kaitlyn Rosati, New York Daily News, 21 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

regularization (conformed to broccoli) of any of various southern Italian dialect forms, such as Neapolitan vruoccole de rapa, literally, "flower stalks of the turnip"

Note: The spellings rabe, raab reflect English perceptions of a lenis stop and reduced or absent vowel in the southern Italian forms.

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above