That purplish red in your salad mix back in the eighties used to be red cabbage, there’s a good chance now your salad mix is called mesclun and the slightly crunchy burgundy red component is radicchio. Placed side by side, red cabbage and radicchio might look alike with their shiny smooth leaves and tight heads but that is where the similarities end.
Radicchio (pronounced rah DEE kee oh) is a member of chicory family that also includes endive, escarole and frisee. Originally cultivated and imported from the Veneto region of Italy, it is widely grown domestically by both commercial and home gardeners. Once again, we get our seeds from a company, Seeds of Italy. We have grown both the Treviso that produces heads that grow taller, much like a Romaine lettuce and the Verona that produces a rounder more compact head reminiscent of Bibb lettuce.
Our mid summer planting of radicchio will eventually yield tight magenta red heads with bright white ribs when the cooler temperatures of fall arrive. The initial growth is bright green, a little bit fuzzy, already displaying it’s characteristic bitter flavor. A good way of introducing reluctant palates to bitter greens is to pair them with contrasting flavors. Combining bitter greens with sweet, salty and acidic ingredients is a good way of taming their flavor and balancing out the bitterness. Since I needed to thin out both beet greens and radicchio I combined the bitter greens of the radicchio with the milder beet green.
Tangy pickled blackberries were an interesting addition to this salad. A recent recipe for them in Food and Wine magazine intrigued me enough to make a few pints from berries I picked up at the farmers market. I wasn’t sure where I would use them, perhaps with some thick juicy pork chops, but this salad seemed like the perfect opportunity to try them out. The sweet and sharp flavor of the berries contrasted nicely with the radicchio. Crisply cooked cubes of pancetta provided a fatty and salty contrast. A little bit of finely julienned pickled ginger and sweet earthy raw beets gave color, texture and yet another flavor element. The final touch, a dressing made with blackberry ginger balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a little Boursin cheese to provide a creamy element. A totally improvised and very flavorful way to use our baby greens.
Radicchio and Beet Green Salad
Serves two
Ingredients
- 1/2c creamy herb cheese (like Boursin)
- 2 1/2T balsamic vinegar (I used a blackberry ginger balsamic)
- 1T water
- 1/3c extra virgin olive oil
- 4-5 cups of baby beet and radicchio greens
- 1/4c diced pancetta, cooked until crispy
- 1/2c finely julienned raw beets
- 2T finely julienned pickled ginger
- 1/4c pickled blackberries (recipe follows) you could also substitute fresh black or blueberries
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- In a small food processor, pulse the cheese with the vinegar, water and olive oil until the dressing is smooth. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
- Place beet and radicchio greens on a serving platter, top with julienned beets, pancetta and pickled ginger. Toss with enough dressing to lightly coat, there will be some left over. Sprinkle blackberries on top. Finish with a grind of pepper.
Spiced and Pickled Blackberries
Makes 4 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 8 black peppercorns
- 3 allspice berries
- 2 juniper berries
- One 1/2-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
- 1 small bay leaf
- 2c red wine vinegar
- 2c water
- 6T sugar
- 3T kosher salt
- 1 shallot, quartered lengthwise
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 18 ounces fresh blackberries
Directions
- In a mortar, lightly crush the peppercorns with the allspice, juniper berries, ginger and bay leaf. Transfer to a medium saucepan and add the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, shallot and thyme. Bring just to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and the salt. Let the brine cool completely.
- Strain the brine into clean glass jars and add the blackberries. Cover and refrigerate for at least a week before serving.
- Pickled blackberries can be refrigerated for up to 3 months.
