Arugula
(American English) or
rocket (Commonwealth English)
is a type of leaf vegetable, for culinary
purposes considered a sort of lettuce. Scientifically,
it consists of three species: Eruca
sativa, Diplotaxis
tenuifolia and Diplotaxis muralis. It is occasionally known by its
French name roquette
or Italian names rucola
or rughetta. Rocket
has been grown as a vegetable in the Mediterranean area since
the Roman times; it was considered
to be an aphrodisiac. Still, it was
not cultivated on a large scale and not scientifically researched until the 1990s.
It was usually collected in the wild. Nowadays, it is cultivated in various places,
especially in Veneto, and available in all of
Europe. Rocket
is especially used in salads, but also cooked as a vegetable
with pasta or dry meat. In Italy its use for pizzas is also common;
in this case it is added only after the baking. It is rich in vitamin C
and iron. External
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