Sicilian broccoli

For ➋
500 g broccoli, sliced in long portions from stem to floret
3 cloves garlic, sliced
¼ ts hot red pepper
¼ ts salt
5 tbs olive oil or enough to coat

Steam broccoli in a steamer until bright green. Or cook for 10 m in microwave oven.
Remove from heat.
Transfer to shallow dish. Cover with olive oil. Add garlic, pepper and salt to taste.
Marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Serve as a cold side-dish or at room temperature with cold chicken or cold white fish.*

*Marinate chicken pieces in mix of lemon juice and single-flower honey. Bake in oven or in microwave. Eat cool or lukewarm.
A battlefield for centuries, between Greeks and Romans, between Christendom and Islam, between Christian emperors from Normans to Bourbons, Sicily stayed the poor island it always was, with peasants and fishermen turning to the local Mafia for dearly paid help to keep some of their produce as own food. The invaders brought vegetables and fruit, never before grown in Europe, and influenced the simple cooking. Broccoli seemed to have arrived on Sicily with the Romans.
Read more Sicilian recipes: an almost Sicilian salad, tartar of shrimps & artichokes, Sicilian swordfish, Sicilian olive sauce, spaghetti with tomatoes, capers & mint.