Rachel Roddy's recipe for broccoli with anchovy butter and breadcrumbs | Food (2024)

The second way with this butter is alongside broccoli. Like the Judas trees on Via Galvani and the star jasmine on our leaky terrace, the broccoli family is bursting into flower. “It’s the end of the season,” the man at the fruit and vegetable shop on the piazza tells me, pointing to the last crates of tree-like calabrese, sprouting broccoli and broccoletti, which look like a mad, leafy sprouting broccoli, but are, in fact, turnip tops. He explains that the tiny yellow flowers that decorate the florets like daisies in the grass are not only edible, but tender and sweet, too. Then there is a macabre turn that is a familiar part of Roman food shopping, when he tells me the eventual seeds can be deadly, while handing me a bunch of broccoletti with flowers. I take that to mean they are still tender and sweet.

Last but not least, the fourth way is using anchovy butter to make breadcrumbs. Put a big spoonful in a frying pan over a medium-low heat and, once melted and frothing at the edges, add a handful of breadcrumbs from the heart of a white loaf and let them sizzle until golden, scraggy, crisp and deeply flavoured.

Again, broccoli works here: a handful of crumbs offers a brilliant and pleasing contrast to the fleshy stems and soft green florets. Alternatively, spring greens, pasta and tomato sauce, or pasta with broccoli are all improved by these crisp crumbs. Sicilians sometimes refer to breadcrumbs as the parmesan of the poor, which is ironic here because, having absorbed so much flavour and fried almost golden, they look and taste anything but poor. And, for more riches, put half a jar of anchovy butter in the fridge for another day.

Make the anchovy butter: drain the oil from the tin of anchovies and pulse or pound in a food processor or mortar with the garlic, a pinch of red chilli flakes and the lemon zest, until you have a sludgy paste. Then melt the butter in a small pan and either pour it directly into the food processor and pulse again, or add to the mortar. Taste and add lemon juice and salt, if you think it needs it. Add a large spoonful to steamed or boiled (and well-drained) broccoli. Pour the rest into a jar with a lid and chill until it sets firm – and becomes a firm favourite.