SICILIAN EDIBLE WEEDS and Greek VLITA

Sicilians have a wide range of edible weeds, not that they call them weeds, they are ERBE SONTANEE … spontaneous herbs.

I have shopped at the Queen Victoria Market ever since I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide. I am always excited by new produce, whether it is new in season or because it is new to me. I saw a bunch of greens called vlita at one of the stalls where I often buy my vegetables. I had never seen vlita before – sold as a very large bunch of a long, green leafy plant with its roots still attached.

Greens leafy vegetables in January are not very common.

 

One of the stall owners is a Calabrese (from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy) so I assumed – incorrectly – that it was a wild green, traditionally eaten like spinach in Italy and one I was not familiar with.

As I continued my way down the aisle, the vlita was attracting a lot of attention, but from people of Greek heritage, not Italians. I was stopped four times and they were surprised to hear that I knew the name and that I intended to sauté it in olive oil with garlic. A couple of them mentioned the word horta.

Further down the aisle, I was stopped by yet another woman who told me these plants were much appreciated in her country – India. She said that she was more familiar with a purple tinged variety. So home I went with my various bits of information, determined to discover more.

Yes, vlita is a common weed in Australia, but it is a wild green and one of many gathered and eaten in other parts of the world including Greece, Japan, India, South America and Taiwan. The taste is a little like a beet or spinach, only more grassy.

Vlita belongs to the amaranth family and this variety is known as palmer amarynth.

The amaranthus tricolor or red amaranth is sold more in commercial quantities than the green variety and is a very attractive plant; the leaves are much more colourful than palmer amaranth and it is sold in many stalls which sell Asian vegetables.

Alternative names are een choi (Chinese) phak khom suan (Thai) radên (Vietnamese) bayam (Indonesian).

In different parts of Greece, it is usually served as a cooked green salad. Horta are leafy green vegetables or wild greens and vlita is one of these.

Some varieties of the plant are grown as a grain crop for their seeds – which are very nutritious and can be made into flour – and amaranth flour is becoming increasingly well known as a nutritious alternative to wheat, especially in America. My friend who prefers not to eat wheat enjoys pasta made with amaranth (gluten free).

The young leaves and tender stalks are picked and eaten before the plant flowers. They were sold to me in large bunches with the roots attached – picked this way, they last longer.

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Sicilians forage for erbe spontanee and like vegetables are seasonal and collected by many. Some of these wild greens can also be bought at stalls in markets.
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Gira (or giriteddi), sparaceddi (wild asparagus) or amareddi are particularly popular. I gained a wealth of information from this gentleman I encountered collecting his supply.
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Last October–December), when I was in Sicily there were lassine, sanapu, agghiti (wild spinach), urrania (borage) and wild fennel for sale in markets.
The three gentlemen in this post are also in my book Sicilian Seafood Cooking.
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Borage in the photo above.
Wild greens/ Edible weeds can be cooked alone or mixed with other green leaf vegetables.
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Italians cook greens, as the Greeks do: blanched/ whilted and drained, then seasoned with salt, olive oil and lemon juice and presented hot or cold as a cooked salad.

My favourite cooking method (common mostly in the South of Italy) is to precook the greens in boiling, salted water, drain them well and then sauté them in olive oil, chilli and garlic. They can be eaten hot or cold.

 

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TORTINO DI FINOCCHI (A flan of cooked fennel)

I recently made a Tortino di Finocchio, for lack of a better name – a fennel flan – and managed to find some reasonably fresh fennel from my favourite stall at Queen Victoria Market. The stall holder suggested that his fennel might be  from colder Tasmania.

But as I continued with my shopping, I couldn’t help but notice the sorry specimens at other stalls—stunted, small, and showing signs of going to seed. It always baffles me when customers purchase these well-out-of-season fennel varieties, which are far from ideal for eating raw in salads.

One such customer, standing beside me, picked up a couple of these dull, weedy fennel bulbs and I couldn’t resist commenting that fennel can also be cooked, and she seemed genuinely surprised! It’s a reminder that, while fennel has become a more recognised vegetable in Australia, its versatility is often unknown.

My grandmother, Maria from Catania in Sicily, was particularly fond of making this fennel tortino. This being an old Sicilian recipe, in her version, she used breadcrumbs to bind the dish. In more modern recipes you will find that béchamel or eggs bind the dish. In northern Italy, butter and Parmesan is used instead of the more typical olive oil and Pecorino from Sicily. 

A torta in Italian is a torte or a cake, but it can also be a savoury cake, flan or pie. It is usually made of vegetables and partially baked. It may include pastry.
The ino as the ending in tortino implies that it is smaller, but this is not always the case. I have seen similar dishes called a sformato or a pasticcio and in Sicilian a turticedda. All this can be very confusing for a non-Italian, as basically they are the same things.

This tortino is versatile enough to serve as a hot or cold dish—perfect as a side (contorno) or as a first course (antipasto). The fennel can be pre-cooked in advance, and the tortino itself can be prepared a day or two ahead and stored in the fridge.

The following recipe serves 6-8 people and can easily be adapted to your preferences. It’s simple, yet bursting with flavour.

Ingredients:

1kg fennel bulbs (about 3-4 large bulbs)
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 cup parsley, finely chopped
½ tbsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup grated Pecorino cheese
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil (for sautéing and drizzling)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups coarse breadcrumbs (preferably made from 1-3 day-old, quality bread)
Optional: A splash of white wine or stock (instead of water) to add depth of flavour

Method:

Preheat the Oven:
Begin by heating your oven to 180°C (350°F). If you have a fan-forced oven, you may want to reduce the temperature slightly.

Make the Breadcrumbs:
If you haven’t done so already, prepare your breadcrumbs. A good trick is to use slightly stale bread—about 1-3 days old—for a better texture. If you have a food processor, it’ll be quick work.

Prepare the Fennel:
Slice the fennel bulbs lengthwise and thinly. Don’t forget to chop up the tender green fronds; they add a fresh, aromatic touch to the dish.

Sauté the Aromatics:
Heat a generous 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and sauté until it softens, then stir in the fennel slices. Cook until the fennel is just starting to soften and take on a little colour. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture starts to dry out, splash in a little water, white wine, or vegetable stock to help the fennel cook down. Cover and let the fennel soften for about 5-10 minutes.

Prepare the Baking Dish:
Select a baking dish large enough to fit all of the fennel layers (about 10cm deep). Grease it generously with olive oil, or, for a more traditional approach, lard. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs over the bottom of the dish, ensuring it’s evenly covered.

Layer the Ingredients:
In a bowl, mix the remaining breadcrumbs with the chopped parsley, grated Pecorino, oregano, and garlic. Begin by layering the fennel mixture in the prepared dish. Sprinkle some of the breadcrumb mixture between each layer of fennel, repeating until you’ve used up all the ingredients, making sure you end with the breadcrumb mixture on top.

Compress and Bake:
Gently press down on the layers with your hands to compact them. Drizzle the top with a little extra olive oil. To keep the layers intact while baking, cover the dish with a heavy lid or, as my grandmother would do, place a small, oven-safe terracotta plate on top to weigh it down.
Place the dish in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes. Check for doneness—if the fennel isn’t soft enough or if it looks too dry, add a little more liquid (wine or stock) and cover it again until fully cooked.

Final Touch:
Once the fennel is tender, remove the lid or plate, drizzle the top with more olive oil, and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes, or until the top forms a golden, slightly crisp crust.

The finished tortino should have the texture of a moist, flavourful cake—easily sliced into generous wedges. Serve it hot, cold, or at room temperature for a comforting, authentic Sicilian treat.

(Good specimens of fennel. The photo was taken at the Saturday morning street market in Greve, Tuscany in December 2008.).

FENNEL CAPONATA (Sicilian sweet and sour method for vegetables).