Rue ✦

Rue officinale (herbe de grâce)

What it is

Apicius reaches for it constantly, and Roman offal cookery has never let it go — it is still the herb standing upright in a bottle of grappa alla ruta. Its sap is phototoxic: handle the plant bare-armed in summer sun and you can raise blisters that take weeks to fade.

In the kitchen

Count leaves, not sprigs: two or three in a pan of kidneys or a litre of stock is the ceiling, and a fourth turns the whole dish acrid. Chop it into fat, never into acid.

Goes with

Olive oil Anchovy Garlic Kidneys Gras-double (rumen tripe) Grappa Black pepper

In season alongside

Bagnoli truffle Crottin de Chavignol Epazote Green walnut Mustard greens Papalo

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