Please contact for permissions. The point is, however, that the point of view is important in such writings. It is also full of recipes and photos. The plant has been messed with quite a lot in recent years, to tease out various qualities desired in the oil, and to foster resistance to pests, etc. Broccoli Rabe is also known as rapini, raab, turnip rapa and is a cultivar of the ruvo group of vegetables. Do they mean: How to prepare? Think of it like Italian broccoli. The point is, however, it is not written for the reader, it is written for the community, much like postings on message boards are written for other forum members, except that Wikipedia is more formal and is meant to be articles. Not only do some authors on the net think that rapeseed oil comes from broccoli rabe, but that broccoli rabe was developed recently for the oil and that we eat it just by chance. I’ve seen TV cooks cooking with it and calling it brocolli rabe, or vice versa, unfortunately. New York: Springer, 2009. All of these were derived from a wild cabbage. The problem with books might surprise you. Now that you’ve found, at least, that rapini is related to both broccoli and turnips, you may be left wondering what the heck a cultivar is. Or, of course, an intelligent and well-educated lay-person like yourself! Asparation is the name of their seed, by the way. It is spicy, slightly peppery and the leaves have a mustard like flavor. It is the world’s third leading source of vegetable oil but this oil is also used for industry and for biofuels. That in itself would be enough but you also get availability, storage, selection, and preparation. Rapeseed oil does not come from broccoli rabe. This book states broccoli rabe and rapini are related but two different things. We’re talking in-depth articles on the history of the vegetable, not just the Latin names (although that too). Broccoli rabe is very different from Broccolini. The other thing to know when selecting rapini varieties is that there is a lot of confusion between rapini, broccolini, sprouting broccoli, and turnip greens. You could probably tell what I thought of it by the fact that I gave it a big splashy picture smack-dab in the middle of the article. Now, if you looked this up on Wikipedia, you would find out it was part of the Brassicaceae or mustard family with the scientific monicker Brassica rapa and that it was in the cultivar group that the turnip is in. The point is that people often turn to sub-par books because they seem more accessible, having been turned off by nothing more than bad titles! Rapeseed oil, which is called canola oil when sold as cooking oil, for obvious reasons, is extracted from the seeds of brassica napus, otherwise known as oilseed rape or canola. B. rapa may have been used for oil purpose in Europe as early as teh 13th century and even earlier in India, China, and Japan. Whereas broccoli rabe needs to be handled with care to get rid of some of the bitterness (quick blanch than a saute or grill, for example) broccolini is good to go no matter what you choose to do with it, as long as you do not over-cook it, which would go for most vegetables. Do Dietary Supplements Require FDA Approval Before Being Sold? The exact origin of B. napa is still in question. May seem like I’m singing my own praises here but actually, there is this old-fashioned way of getting information: books! The plant may well have derived on some farm where cabbage, broccoli rabe, kale, and other relatives were growing close together.