shopping for veggies in rome

My friend Evan is in town, and besides trying as much carbonara and gelato as we can, we are also hitting the various markets. (and Evan wrote about this on her blog). I actually don’t go to the markets as much as I used to. When I first moved to Rome I would make it over to Campo dei Fiori at least once a week, and to the markets closer to home even more often. But not only has Campo changed (less stands selling actual food) but my shopping habits have changed too. I tend to head to the organic market in Testaccio once a week, or the farmers market on Via San Teodoro on Saturdays.

But getting back to Campo, a few things have stayed the same. First of all, I can’t think of a more beautiful market in all of Rome. If you are visiting the city, and want to have one truly beautiful outdoor market experience, Campo can’t be beat.
Wandering around the market the other day I also realized that one of the things I love about going to a daily, neighborhood market is that this is where the tradition of selling pre-cut and washed vegetables thrives. So often people complain they don’t buy vegetables since they take too much skill/time/effort to prepare. Well, you’ve got no excuses if you shop at Campo, or almost any other small neighborhood store or market. Rather than just sit ideally waiting for customers, the vendors prepare huge baskets of prepped broccoli, stringbeans, spinach and swiss chard. This comes in particularly handy for veggies that are a bit more tricky like artichokes and puntarelle.
 
I especially like the mixes. No Roman housewife would ever think of making her minestrone without a stop to pick up a bag of minestrone mix. What’s in it? Whatever is in season. Swiss chard, cabbage, carrots are usually standard, but then there’s celery, beans, broccoli and other seasonal ingredients. And the vendor always throws in a potato, onion and a few sprigs of parsley to your bag.

If you’re lucky you can even find someone who has taken the effort to bring in foraged greens from the fields around Rome. The misticanza Evan and bought the other day included borage, fennel tops and about six other greens we couldn’t even name. We just opened the bag up, gave it a rinse, and after a drizzle of oil it was dinner.

And that’s the great thing about these prepped veggies. They require so little effort. I’ve already given a minestrone recipe in the past. And the broccoli rabe recipe will do for any green.