Brassicas can be one of the most time-consuming crops to grow in the garden, and may feel like they take FOREVER to grow, but they have a special spot in my gardening heart. One brassica I particularly enjoy growing is the beautiful Romanesco.
Romanesco, also known as romanesco broccoli or cauliflower romanesco, is a beautiful, lime green, spiral-covered brassica that gives a tasty and unique nutty flavour. It can be enjoyed fresh or cooked.
One of my favourite ways to eat it is in a tasty pasta dish I created last year with some bacon or pancetta, lemon zest, olive oil, garlic, romanesco, chilli and parmesan. My personal pasta preference is fettuccine and a nice glass of white wine always goes well with it!
In 2021, I had my first Winter growing competition across Australia named 'The Romanesco Challenge 2021' (you can visit #romanescochallenge2021 on Instagram to see it all) that had some great successes and interest from all over Australia.
The winning romanesco came in at a whopping 1.6kg and stretched out more then 30cm across! A couple of months later I harvested my own stomper of a romanesco too which still wasn't quite as big as Zen's!
If you want to try growing your own romanesco broccoli like Charlie, make sure you get your hands on some seeds HERE!