speck and rocket
We saw these two items listed many times on italian menues. Does anyone know what these are? We think speck may be a thin slice of meat of some sort, but rocket we never could even begin to guess.
Kathy
Brighton, MI USA 10/17/09
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Another type of salad leaf...it may have a pepper flavour...I love the taste.
Speck is a ham..or bacon
Speck is a form of ham and rocket is green leaf lettuce product.
Rocket is like Arugula, sort of looks like Dandilion leaves.
Speck is usually bacon.
Kathy,
As the others have indicated, "rocket" is Arugula lettuce while "speck" is a cured meat similar to bacon.
Thank you everyone! We did have both but couldn't figure out what was what :)
Speck is a cured pork product. The taste is a cross between prosciutto and breasola (an air dried beef). It is commonly found in northern Italy, but available all over the country.
Rocket is a type of lettuce item and is another name for arugala, which is bitter. it is a very popular component in salads over there.
Buon viaggio,
RB
Rocket is the British name for what Americans call arugula (It's "rucola" in Italian). It's more peppery/nutty than it is bitter. We love it.
Speck is junipher cured ham from the the area around Asiago. Rocket is the same as rucula.
Try tagliata di manzo. It's steak sliced on a bed of rocket with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of rosemary. My husband's favorite dish.
My husband would love that too! Thanks for the suggestion! Any kind of steak in particular?
Thanks everyone for the explanation. We were in Italy in September and were so curious about rocket! We decided it would be more fun to try to figure it out than to ask anyone, but we were not successful. Thanks again!
You can grow your own rocket aka arugula if you have a tiny bit of garden space. It grows like a weed with no trouble at all. We're eating arugula salads and arugula pesto even this late in November here in the Puget Sound.
Try arugula, bartlett pears, crumbled goat cheese, and pecans with a raspberry vinagrette.
Or arugula, diced braeburn apple, crumbled bleu cheese, and walnuts with a lemon vinagrette.
Or arugula, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and pine nuts with a sherry vinegar dressing.
Or arugula, tomatoes, crumbled bacon, cucumbers, and chopped egg with a balsamic dressing.
Or try finely chopped arugula mixed with ricotta cheese, grated parmigiano, an egg and a bit of grated nutmeg stuffed into large pasta shells and simmered in a marinara sauce.
Can you tell that we had a bumper crop this fall??
Thanks Jer! Every one of your suggestions sound yummy! Martha, we tried the same (guessing) and thought we had figured out speck but we hadn't any ideas on rocket. It became a game for us and since it involved eating great food we all loved it :)