Wild rocket is not the salad we are all used to with the only difference of having grown spontaneously. This term instead indicates a different plant with specific characteristics and properties that we will present to you in our article.
Wild rocket is excellent in the kitchen as a side dish for many tasty dishes and has no particular contraindications.
Characteristics of Wild Rocket
We can hear it called by different names: “arugula officinalis”, “wild rocket”, “Eruca Sativa” . It is always the same plant and it is not that of the “salad” rocket. It is a spontaneous plant belonging to the Cruciferae family that we can see growing spontaneously in areas with very different characteristics. Both in the plains and in the high mountains. It has precious properties for our health and moreover aphrodisiacs, which can also be of interest to those who are as fit as a fiddle. Wild rocket has long been known for the benefits it can bring and therefore collected since ancient times.
Although it resembles cultivated rocket, otherwise the name would not even be explained, the wild one has characteristics that allow even non-experts to recognize it. For example, it has longer and thinner stems and its leaves have serrated edges, it produces yellow flowers. If we taste it, we can notice that its flavor is even more intense and strong than that of cultivated rocket, and even spicier.
Properties of Wild Rocket
Rich in both mineral salts and vitamins , the shoots of common rocket are as precious as its leaves. To use them at their best, we must collect them from late spring until autumn. They can be eaten both raw and cooked. In particular, the shoots are rich in Vitamin C (or ascorbic acid) and vitamin B9 (or folic acid).
Vitamin C has several beneficial effects on our body, it fights diabetes, for example, but it also helps fight the formation of free radicals and prevent cellular aging . Vitamin B9, on the other hand, acts above all on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and heart attacks, in the first months of pregnancy it prevents malformations of the fetus.
Contraindications of Wild Rocket
Unless you have a specific allergy or intolerance to this plant, there are no particular contraindications to take into account. The important thing is to proceed with moderation, but this is always true. If a medicinal herb has benefits, you should not gorge on it. The recommended dose for wild rocket , daily, is about 2 handfuls. Even for those on a diet, no problem: 100 grams of rocket provide only 25 calories!
Wild rocket in the kitchen
There are many ways to enjoy your recommended daily dose of wild rocket and it is worth doing so given the different properties it boasts. Digestive and diuretic first and foremost but not only. We can prepare infusions with this herb, excellent for treating diseases such as bronchitis and whooping cough and for providing relief in cases of hoarseness, sinusitis and laryngitis. You can also prepare lotions to apply on greasy hair with excellent results. In the kitchen we can find this type of rocket in some tasty recipes. Let’s see some of them
Carpaccio of bresaola, rocket and parmesan
This is an excellent dish, in the summer, because it is fresh, light and nutritious, but also for all the other months of the year. It is often found in low-calorie diets also because bresaola provides only 151 kcal per 100 grams and rocket, as we have already seen, certainly does not make you gain weight. This recipe is ready in a few minutes. You need 100 grams of bresaola, a little rocket, half a lemon, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and some parmesan flakes.
Thin slices of bresaola are laid out on a plate and the rocket is added, then seasoned with oil, lemon and parmesan flakes. It is ready, but to serve it elegantly, it is decorated with a lemon wedge . A more choreographic version is the involtino version: just roll up the bresaola with the same ingredients inside.
Rocket Focaccia
Preparing rocket focaccia means nothing more than cooking a normal focaccia and then flavoring it with this herb. This first phase requires the use of 400 grams of flour with half a glass of extra virgin olive oil, a cube of brewer’s yeast, whole fine salt and water, to make the dough soft and smooth. After three hours of leavening, with the dough left covered in a bowl, you can proceed to cooking it. We use a well-oiled pan and leave to cook in the oven at 180 ° C for about 30 minutes. When it is cooked, sprinkle with coarse salt, cut it into pieces and then add the fresh rocket.
Rocket liqueur
We end as per tradition with a good healthy digestive , obviously based on rocket. We have to macerate about 50 leaves in the dark for about two weeks, together with very fine orange and lemon peels, a vanilla bean and a spoonful of cloves. Then comes the time to filter the liqueur and add it to the syrup made of water and sugar . After bottling, we let the liqueur rest again for three months before tasting it.
