Growing rocket (Eruca sativa) in your garden is so easy it can become a weed - any price you pay for it in a shop is excessive, writes Andrew Unsworth Rocket is also known as rucola, arugula and roquette, but please, not rockette. That's a dancer at New York's Radio City Music Hall: delicious, but not in a salad. The English "rocket" comes from the French roquette which in turn comes from the Latin word eruca.As that implies, it's indigenous to the Mediterranean area and has been grown as a crop since Roman times, when it was believed to be an aphrodisiac, which some claim led to it being forbidden in monastery gardens. I doubt it. As they were perfecting beers and liqueurs they are unlikely to have been bothered with a herb.story_article_left1GROWING ROCKETRocket does best in cool weather or a cooler spot in the garden, but you can sow seeds year round. Don't buy a single plant in a pot, it's not a herb you use sparingly, you need buckets of the stuff. Scatter seeds between flowering plants or grow it around other plants in pots instead of expensive annuals.Plant it every two months as you can harvest it within 40 days. Young leaves are best; older leaves become more peppery or hot. Once the plant has "bolted" to flower, the leaves are less edible. If you leave it to flower and seed you will find rocket seedlings all over the place, which is fine as they are not difficult to weed out if unwanted. I do find that it can revert to species, what seems to be a narrower leaf variety which is a bit tougher and more intense in flavour. It could be Eruca vesicaria, possibly a subspecies, or even Diplotaxis tenuifolia, the perennial wall rocket, also edible but not as pleasant. I have never knowingly planted it. story_article_right2COOKING WITH ROCKETRocket certainly became a sexy salad green a few years ago, while others like salad burnet, similar in growth, did not crack it. Both mix well into a salad, and rocket can even stand alone with no lettuce.It can even be cooked, just add it to a pot of any short pasta five minutes before it's done, drain and serve with a tomato-based sauce and pecorino cheese.Here are other interesting ways to use it, from Italy:Hot beef salad with rocketServes 4• Season 500g rump or sirloin steak with salt and pepper and slice very thinly. • Heat 5 tbsp olive oil in a pan and fry 2 crushed garlic cloves and a sprig of fresh rosemary until fragrant. • Discard the garlic and rosemary and fry the steak in the infused oil over high heat until browned all over, about 1 minute for medium-rare. Set aside.• Fry 1 sliced onion in the same pan until tender, then add 15ml (1 tbsp) balsamic or red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt, and fry for another 2 minutes. • Add the steak to the pan, toss to heat through and serve on a bed of rocket leaves. Baby marrow and rocket saladServes 2-4• Cut 250g baby marrows into long ribbons with a potato peeler. • Toss with 250g rocket leaves, 100g mint leaves and a simple vinaigrette dressing. • Season with salt and pepper and top with 200g crumbled feta cheese. ..