Rocket

Rocket, eruca, or arugula (Eruca vesicaria; syns. Eruca sativa Mill., E. vesicaria subsp. sativa (Miller) Thell., Brassica eruca L.) is an edible annual plant in the family Brassicaceae used as a leaf vegetable for its fresh, tart, bitter, and peppery flavor. Its other common names include garden rocket (in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand), as well as colewort, roquette, ruchetta, rucola, rucoli, and rugula.

Native to the Mediterranean region, E. vesicaria is widely popular as a salad vegetable.

Description

Eruca vesicaria is an annual plant growing to 20 to 100 cm (8 to 40 in) in height. The pinnate leaves are deeply lobed with four to ten, small, lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe. The flowers are 2 to 4 cm (3⁄4 to 1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, arranged in a corymb, with the typical Brassicaceae flower structure. The petals are creamy white with purple veins, and the stamens are yellow. The fruit is a siliqua (pod) 12 to 25 mm (1⁄2 to 1 in) long with an apical beak, containing several seeds. The species has a chromosome number of 2n = 22.

Names

Sativa, from one of the plant's synonyms, is from satum, meaning "to sow", indicating that the seeds of the plant were sown in gardens. Eruca sativa differs from E. vesicaria in having early deciduous sepals. Some botanists consider it a subspecies of E. vesicaria as E. v. subsp. sativa. Still others do not differentiate between the two.

The English common name rocket derives from French roquette, itself a borrowing from Italian ruchetta, a diminutive of ruca, from the Latin word eruca.

"Arugula" (), the common name now widespread in the United States and Canada, entered American English from a nonstandard dialect of Italian. The standard Italian word is "rucola". The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first known appearance of "arugula" in American English to a 1960 article in The New York Times by food editor and prolific cookbook writer, Craig Claiborne.

Synonyms

According to the Plant List, the following are synonyms:

Similarly named plants

Rocket is sometimes conflated with Diplotaxis tenuifolia, known as 'perennial wall rocket', another plant of the family Brassicaceae that is used in the same manner.

Species of Barbarea may be known as 'yellow rocket'.

Brassica oleracea may also be known by the common name 'colewort'.

Ecology

E. vesicaria is native to southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. As an invasive species arugula is widespread but scattered though is prolific and noxious in the Sonora desert of Arizona and California.

The species typically grows on dry, disturbed ground. It is a source of food for the larvae of some moth species, including the garden carpet. Its roots are susceptible to nematode infestation.

Cultivation

Grown as an edible and popular herb in Italy since Roman times, arugula was mentioned by various ancient Roman classical authors as an aphrodisiac, most famously in a poem long ascribed to the famous first century Roman poet Virgil, Moretum, which contains the line: "et Venerem revocans eruca morantem" ("and the rocket, which revives drowsy Venus [sexual desire]"), and in the Ars Amatoria of Ovid. Some writers assert that for this reason, during the Middle Ages, growing arugula was forbidden in monasteries. Nonetheless, the plant was listed in a decree by Charlemagne as among the 802 pot herbs suitable for growing in gardens. Gillian Riley, author of the Oxford Companion to Italian Food, states that because of its reputation as a sexual stimulant, it was "prudently mixed with lettuce, which was the opposite" (i.e., calming or even soporific). Riley continues, "nowadays rocket is enjoyed innocently in mixed salads, to which it adds a pleasing pungency", although Norman Douglas insisted, "Salad rocket is certainly a stimulant".

The plant was traditionally collected in the wild or grown in home gardens along with herbs, such as parsley and basil. Arugula now is grown commercially in many places and is available in supermarkets and farmers markets worldwide. It now is naturalized as a wild plant away from its native range in temperate regions around the world, including northern Europe and North America. In India, the mature seeds are known as "Gargeer". This is the same name used in Arabic, جِرْجِير (jirjīr), but used in Arab countries this name is used for the fresh leaves of the plant.

Mild frost conditions hinder the plant's growth and turn the green leaves to red. If the weather is warm plants mature to full size in 40 to 50 days.

Uses

Nutrition

Raw arugula is 92% water, 4% carbohydrates, 2.5% protein, and contains a negligible amount of fat. A 100 g (3+1⁄2 oz) reference serving provides only 105 kJ (25 kcal) of food energy. It is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of folate and vitamin K. Arugula is also a good source (10–19% of DV) of vitamin A, vitamin C, and the dietary minerals calcium, magnesium, and manganese. It also includes potassium.

Arugula is generally not allergenic.

Culinary

The leaves, flowers, young seed pods, and mature seeds are all edible.

Since Roman times in Italy, raw arugula has been added to salads. It often is added as a garnish to a pizza at the end of or just after baking. In Apulia, in southern Italy, arugula is cooked to make the pasta dish "cavatiéddi", "in which large amounts of coarsely chopped rocket are added to pasta seasoned with a homemade reduced tomato sauce and pecorino", as well as in many recipes in which it is chopped and added to sauces and cooked dishes or in a sauce (made by frying it in olive oil with garlic). It also is used as a condiment for cold meats and fish. Throughout Italy, it is used as a salad with tomatoes and with burrata, bocconcini, buffalo, or mozzarella cheese. In Rome, "rucola" is used in "straccetti", a dish of thin slices of beef with raw arugula and Parmesan cheese.

In Turkey, similarly, the plant is eaten raw as a side dish or salad with fish or is served with a sauce of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.

In Slovenia, arugula often is combined with boiled potatoes or used in a soup.

In West Asia, Pakistan, and northern India, Eruca seeds are pressed to make taramira oil, used in pickling and (after aging to remove acridity) as a salad or cooking oil. The seed cake is also used as animal feed.

From about the 1990s arugula has become more popular in America, especially in trendier restaurants and in urban areas.

References

External links

• Jeane Osnos, "The most political vegetables: A whirlwind tour of the edible crucifers," The Botanist in the Kitchen, November 20, 2012. How arugula joined broccoli (and lattes) as supposed markers for big-government liberalism.
• Joel Denker, "The 'Lascivious' Leaf: The Allure of Arugula," Food in the 'Hood (published August 11, 2012) Archived September 25, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, in The Intowner, Serving Washington, D. C. since 1968.
• Ezra Klein, "Arugula", The American Prospect, October 7, 2008.
• John Schwenkler, "Eating arugula has become a political act: Conservative thinker is branded a closet liberal based on the food he eats," Earth Matters, MNN (Mother Nature Network), March 2009. Mr. Schwenkler's article originally appeared in Plenty magazine in October 2008.
• David Kamp, The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation, New York: Clarkson Potter (2006). Archived 2020-02-18 at the Wayback Machine