This post is for the bitter heads out there.
Winter is the season of bitter vegetables; the chicory family has it’s moment in the winter sun. My favourite of all these bitter leafy greens is radicchio. Grown in my nonna’s garden for as long as I can remember, it’s a stalwart friend on the winter dinner table.
For my family, no meal is complete without salad. And a SIMPLE salad at that! If my nonna is coming over, you can bet she’s bringing a ziploc bag full of washed and paper-towel-bundled garden lettuce leaves. Dropped into a bowl and dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, this is always the dish that my aunts and uncles ask for seconds of. Fresh, zippy and crunchy, a radicchio salad is precisely the flavour reset one needs between bites of something richer. Bitter radicchio after a bowl of pasta is like smelling coffee beans after sampling perfumes - a palate cleanser.
Most commonly we see chioggia radicchio at the grocery store. But from winter to spring, farmer’s markets are full of radicchio ranging in colours from light ballerina pink to vibrant purple, with large, lacy leaves or long, curling tendrils. When I worked as a cook at Livia in Vancouver, I washed pounds and pounds of the beautiful chicories, ready to become a winter salad.
If you come over for dinner in the winter, odds are I’m making a radicchio salad. My favourite seasonal ingredient to pair radicchio with is fennel - it’s aromatic and refreshing, balancing the deep bitterness of radicchio. A winter vegetable match made in heaven.
Here is one of my fav classic salad dressings. It’s basic but punchy, and works on soooo many salads. With radicchio and fennel, it really brings together the veg.
Simple Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons white wine vin
splash balsamic vin
1 teaspoon honey
1 clove grated garlic
1.5 teaspoons grainy mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Add all ingredients to a small jar. Shake until emulsified. Season to taste!
This dressing plus these combinations? An elegant dinner party salad.
I am also a freak for an Italian chopped salad. At your next Italian red-checker-table-cloth feast, try this salad. Or, for a cheery little lunch or dinner, top this with some oil packed Italian tuna.
Italian Chopped Salad
Ingredients:
1 head radicchio, chopped
1/2 bulb of fennel, sliced
1/2 small red onion, sliced
1-2 teaspoons fennel seeds, toasted
5-6 peperoncini, sliced
2-3 tablespoons sweetie drop peppers, or 5-6 pappadew peppers, cut in quarters
10-12 kalamata olives, cut in half
1 can or jar oil packed tuna, optional
oregano, chili flakes and maldon salt
Method:
Combine radicchio, fennel, red onion, fennel seeds, peperoncini, sweet peppers and olives in a bowl. Dress with simple salad dressing.
Plate salad and top with tuna. Finish with a sprinkle of oregano, chili flakes and maldon. If not adding tuna, sprinkle the oregano, chili and maldon into the salad bowl and toss.
Enjoy!
Popcorn
Obviously, I’m a massive Meryl Streep fan. As I work my way through Miss Meryl’s filmography, two recent watches jump out as deeply doggy bag: Heartburn and Defending Your Life. Heartburn, based on Nora Ephron’s semi-autobiographical novel, focusses on a food writer named Rachel Samstat (Meryl), whose marriage with her husband (Jack Nicholson) falls apart. I cried, I laughed, I lusted after all the food! A sentimental, heart-aching tale where food is Rachel’s love language. My favourite supporting character.
Defending Your Life is a film by Albert Brooks, in which people who die must prove they lived a fearless existence before moving on to the afterlife. BUT! While waiting to prove your fearlessness, you stay at the way-stop Judgement City, a paradise-esque place with restaurants galore. Meryl plays the kind of woman I want to be: excited by the world around her, effortlessly fun, caring, giving and above all, brave. She fears nothing. She believes in her power. And she loves to eat!
Sexy Little Snack
Last year, I read Coyote Dog Girl by Lisa Hanawalt and it quickly became one of my favourite graphic novels of all time. GOATed, if you will. This prompted me to read Hot Dog Taste Test, a collection of her comics all about food. Hanawalt’s mother is Argentinian, and on a trip to Argentina, Hanawalt described this combination:
I thought it sounded simply exquisite too!! I found a box of quince paste at No Frills, but it’s also typically available at European grocers. Membrillo and manchego is my other recent dinner party obsession - set out slices of manchego cheese topped with slices of membrillo for an easy but delish appetizer.
CIAO!!!! <333