Novelty is the spice of life. Oh wait, that’s variety. Well, I like novelty..

Step 1: Walk inside a grocery store, bodega or your favorite market.

Step 2: Spot a piece of produce that makes your brain itch with curiosity. In this case: this delightfully geometric vegetable next to the cauliflower.

Step 3: Gateway: to get familiar, bring in a familiar cooking method. Here: I opted to get its brassica cousin cauliflower and cook them in the same method.

Step 4: It helps to have a sauce you love. See mustard lemon cauliflower roast recipe previously covered on this blog. You will need to also pick up a lemon, mustards, butter and olive oil.

Step 5: Cook, eat, compare, and delight.

Today’s Trial Ingredient Rating:
Novelty Rating: 5 of 5 stars.
Oh my gosh, you guys, it has a similar texture, is so visually symmetrical in a beautiful way, yet tastes different enough you can tell! I think if you gave this to a kid who liked broccoli they’d be up for it. I was expecting the difference vs. cauliflower to only be cosmetic, but it was definitely noticeable. The only way I can think of to describe it was “more planty,” must be the additional chlorophyll that makes it green.
Likelihood of Repeat: 95%
Reconfirmed: everything is good with butter. Also confirmed: my joints felt mild inflammation the next day, probably from all that butter. But would you feel healthier eating no vegetables, or vegetables with lots of butter?
Lessons Learned:

From a small sample, romanesco appears more expensive than cauliflower. At the store, I found cauliflower $2.20/lb  ranging to $4.22 for organic cauliflower (in betweens: purple and orange cauliflower), vs. “$3.99 each,” and in this case, “each” meant a smaller petite head of romanesco than its bigger cousin cauliflower. I know I’ve spotted them at farmer’s markets too.

What new foods have you tried recently?