Tag: Cicoria

SEASONAL WINTER VEGETABLES in Melbourne, Australia

I really like seasonal produce and winter vegetables are outstanding. The variety is immense, the quality eminent.

Winter vegetables include: artichokes, Asian greens, avocado, beans, beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cardoons, carrot, catalogna, cauliflower, cavolo nero, celeriac, celery, chicory, cime di rapa, cucumber, daikon, endive, fennel, kale, Kohlrabi, lamb’s lettuce, leek, lettuces, mushrooms, okra, onion, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, radicchio, radish, rocket, shallots, silverbeet, spinach, spring onions, swede, sweet potato, turnip, watercress and witlof.

Winter vegetables are truly a gift of the season. With their rich variety and exceptional quality, they bring such vibrant flavors to the table. From earthy root vegetables to crisp, leafy greens, there’s so much to celebrate.

The bounty of winter vegetables includes everything from artichokes and Asian greens to beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and celeriac. There’s also a lovely mix of leafy greens like kale, cavolo nero, and chicory, alongside hearty roots like carrots, parsnips, and swede. And of course, we can’t forget the starchy vegetables like sweet potato, pumpkin, and potato, or the peppery hit from radicchio, rocket, and radish. The list goes on, from daikon and fennel to mushrooms and shallots—each one offering a unique flavor and texture to work with in the kitchen.

As I look at this  list, I realize there are still some vegetables I haven’t shared many recipes for on my blog, All Things Sicilian and More, specifically, daikon, okra, parsnip, shallots, swede, and possibly turnip. It’s not that I don’t use these ingredients—I do! I just tend to focus more on Mediterranean vegetables in my posts, reflecting the influence of my Italian background, both from Trieste and Sicilian, my childhood, and the foundation of my cooking. While the “More” in my blog’s title hints at a broader culinary horizon, Italian cooking remains the focus of my recipes.

That said, I’m always experimenting, and winter offers the perfect opportunity to revisit and reimagine old favorites. For example, I love cooking Asian greens, particularly mustard greens, and preparing them in the same way I cook cime di rapa (a type of Italian turnip green) with pasta. I also enjoy stir-frying Chinese leafy greens in olive oil and garlic, with a few anchovies or a sprinkle of chili flakes for a little extra punch. The marriage of Italian and Asian flavors is something I truly enjoy.

This winter, I’m diving back into some of my favorite winter vegetable recipes, and I’m starting with two of my go-to chicories: Cicoria and Catalogna. These hearty greens are perfect for the season, offering both depth of flavour and versatility.

Cicoria – Chicory

Catalogna is a variant of cicoria. In Italy is also called Puntarelle or cicoria di catalogna or cicoria asparago: asparago means asparagus and this name is very appropriate as the plant looks like a head of shoots.

Catalogna (Puntarelle) has leaves that look like large leaves of chicory and dandelions, but more pointy and narrower; its leaves and shoots have the same bitter taste. And I love bitter greens.

Like chicory, the young and tender shoots of Catalogna can be eaten raw in salads. It is common to soak the puntarelle shoots in ice water for a while so that they curl. and then to dress them with a vinaigrette with anchovies and garlic. They are delicious.

Dressing with anchovies: 500g- 1 kilo puntarelle, 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, 1tbs of vinegar, 3-4 anchovies, 1 clove of garlic. Pound the anchovies and garlic, add the oil and vinegar.

I have been writing about cicoria and puntarelle for a very long time.

This post was published on Nov 9, 2009 and it is worth looking at:

CICORIA and Puntarelle (Chicory)

There are other posts with recipes and information about chicory:

CICORETTA CON SALSICCIA (Chicory with fresh pork sausage)

WANT NOT WASTE NOT- Chicken livers and chicory, twice

 BITTER GREENS and AMARI (Aperitivi and Digestivi)

 

 

 

WANT NOT WASTE NOT- Chicken livers and chicory, twice

This week on Wednesday I was reading about Massimo Bottura’s Italian upbringing: his never-throw-anything-away attitude in the kitchen and his – seasonal, humble and delicious food – and then I thought about my cooking and how I maximise how I use my produce.

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On Sunday night I pan fried some chicken livers with onions, sage, a little grated nutmeg and deglazed them with red wine – simple, humble and delicious. I accompanied them with a little home made Harissa…always a staple in my fridge.

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I also cleaned the outside leaves of two bunches of chicory and braised them = you know how Italians do this, in extra virgin olive oil and garlic.  No chili this time because of the harissa with the livers.

It is winter in Melbourne and chicory is in season. I had two bunches, one bunch with red stalks and one all green. They taste similar, but perhaps the red tinted stalks are more bitter.

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On Monday night I used the left over chicken livers and turned them into a salad.

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I used the juices of the livers as a base.

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I hard-boiled some eggs, made a simple mustard and extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar dressing, used the inside, softer, lighter green leaves to make a salad.

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I added a little left over beetroot and some cooked brown lentils that I had in the fridge; I like sweetness and bitterness together.

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Like Bottura, I have that never-throw-anything-away attitude in the kitchen and this – seasonal, humble and delicious.

And I forgot to say – simple-easy- quick-fresh and healthy. Although I did not say that the livers and the eggs were free range, of course they were!!!

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Chicory, see earlier posts:

Cicoria (chicory)

Cicoretta con Salsiccia (Chicory with Fresh Pork Sausage)

In Praise of Seasonal Vegetables

Harissa made with fresh Chillies

HARISSA (A hot chilli condiment)

 

 

CICORIA and Puntarelle (Chicory)

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I bought some chicory at the Queen Victoria Market this morning – it is a winter vegetable but obviously still around and in good condition, even in November. As you can see in the photo this particular type of chicory has scarlet stalks but most chicory is green.

Well, I call this chicory. There is so much confusion about chicory; it gets confused with endives, escarole, radicchio (especially the green coloured radicchio, often called radicchio biondo or radicchio di Trieste) and even witlof. They all have a distinctive bitter taste, but to me chicory is this one, the one with the long serrated leaves.

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I cook the outer leaves of the chicory  as I do leafy greens – softened before I braise them in oil, garlic and a little chilli (see CAVOLO NERO).

The tender, lighter coloured green (or red) stems and leaves from the centre (or the sprouting shoots in the latter part of winter) I use in salads, either as part of a green leaf salad, or to contrast a sweeter tasting ingredient, for example, beetroot, borlotti beans, or fennel and orange.

A favourite way to use the centre is to use it like Sicilians use cicorino (chicory, often wild and found in spring in Sicily and also called la prima – the first). Pino Correnti, a respected food authority about Sicilian food thinks that this salad is eaten in Troina, in north – central Sicily.

INGREDIENTS
chicory (see below for amounts and type)
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
vinegar
salt and pepper
hard boiled eggs
anchovies

PROCESSES
Wash and cut into small pieces the chicory.
Make the vinaigrette with the oil, vinegar, lemon and seasoning.
Add a few chopped anchovies to the dressing and dress the salad.
Add hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters.

Accompany it with bread.(I like it as a first course as well. For this option I add more eggs and whole anchovies).

Puntarelle are the shoots of a variety of chicory called catalogna. The shoots are either picked while the plant is very young and tender, but more commonly when the plant is going to seed and sends out a greater amount of shoots shoots. The word puntarelle (from punta) means small shoots or points.

The shoots or puntarelle are soaked in cold water before making them into a salad; this process makes the shoots curl (as in the photo below).

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FEATURE PHOTO: Puntarelle with a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, a dash of vinegar, minced anchovies and topped a with some soft ricotta. Creamed goats’ cheese would be OK also. Because there are anchovies in the dressing, a sharp cheese like feta also works well.