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Roman green, leafy salad

⏱ 15 min👤 3 pp★★☆☆☆

Cookery is often like a journey rediscovering the specific and peculiar flavours of traditional recipes or regional dishes, often well suited as an accompaniment to more substantial dishes: today we suggest a Roman-style bitter leaf salad. Distinguished by their freshness and simplicity, the Italian bitter salad leaves are favoured especially in the traditional cuisine of Lazio and Campania: made simply, and raw, they are for just this reason ideal for providing a touch of lightness to lunch or dinner. With this dish you will also be reviving the flavours of a recipe that has its roots deep in the culinary heritage of the Italian countryside, adding to the bitterness of the salad leaves some extra depth from the garlic and anchovy. To avoid any mistakes, and thus making sure you serve something tasty and crispy to your guests, follow our recipe carefully!

Ingredients

Nutritional values 180 kcal / serving
Protein
4g
Carbohydrates
8g
Fat
14g
Fiber
2g

* approximate values per serving

Information
15 minutes Total time
Serves 3 persons
★★☆☆☆ Medium difficulty

Preparation

Prepare the salad leaves by removing all the external stems (the longer ones), but don’t throw them away! It would be a waste: they are very good sautéed with a little garlic and chilli. But that's another story, back to the current recipe: now you should have in your hand the heart of the salad leaf plant. Remove them one by one from the base and rinse under running water. Now cut them into vertical strips, leaving out the toughest part near the base. Fill the sink with cold water and leave to soak for ten minutes so that the cold water firms up the stems. In fact, the salad leaves harvested between January and February are longer and, according to tradition, the skins should be removed so that the cold water curls them. But I prefer not to remove the skin because I like the texture and taste. Do as you prefer! Now prepare the unsalted dressing, mixing oil and lemon juice (I usually use the "bottles" that you see in the picture gallery, which are really practical both for emulsifying and for pouring the dressing). Coarsely chop the garlic and anchovy. Remove the salad leaves from the water and dry in a salad spinner. Dress the salad leaves with the chopped anchovy and garlic, the lemon dressing, and salt to taste.

Tips
You don’t like the bitter taste of these salad laves? Then just leave them to soak in water longer.
Trivia
The parts of the vegetable used are the softer and more tender part of a larger plant.

Step by step

Ingredients
Ingredients
**Click on the photos to access full step by step!

Additional information

Roman Puntarelle what they are

The puntarelle are the central inflorescences of the catalogna chicory plant. The plant consists of a heart made up of dense inflorescences and, around it, long, serrated green leaves with a robust white rib. The central shoots are called "talli" and vaguely resemble asparagus. You may wonder why sometimes the catalogna chicory consists only of leaves and other times it has a dense heart of shoots. It depends on the timing of the harvest. When the chicory is about to flower, it produces the shoots.

Puntarelle can be consumed both cooked and raw: when raw, they have a crunchy texture and a fresh taste in the mouth, with a slight bitter aftertaste. Puntarelle have been known to humans since time immemorial: think that even the Roman author Pliny mentions them in one of his writings! The Greek physician Galen, who lived in the second century AD, recommended enjoying them as a remedy for liver ailments. 

Today, Roman puntarelle are widespread throughout Italy. They are particularly typical of Lazio, Campania, and Puglia. The vegetable from which they are derived is not always the same: as mentioned, in most cases, puntarelle come from catalogna chicory or Gaeta chicory, but in Puglia, for example, there are two other varieties of chicory that give rise to tasty sprouts: Molfetta chicory and Galatina chicory. In such cases, the sprouts are less elongated and more compact, but the flavor is still more or less the same. 

Roman puntarelle recipes

Whatever type of puntarella you have on hand, know that you can enjoy it raw, very simply. All you need to do is separate the shoots and enjoy them one by one, even unseasoned. Alternatively, you can cut them in half or quarters and add some fresh fennel, creating a nice salad to dress with oil, salt, and vinegar. Puntarelle are also good when cooked: to cook them, cut them in half (or leave them whole if they are small) and simply blanch them in a little water. Alternatively, you can cook them in a little water with fennel or artichoke, adding, if desired, a bit of white onion. 

The most famous recipe, however, is that of Roman puntarelle salad: the puntarelle are finely sliced and then dressed with garlic, oil, and anchovy. Before dressing them, they are left in ice-cold water so that they slightly curl up on themselves.

Cooked Roman puntarelle, how to make

In some Italian regions, puntarelle are also cooked together with legumes, creating delicious soups perfect for the coldest winter days. Cooked Roman puntarelle are excellent, as already mentioned, also with other vegetables, such as fennel or artichokes. By cooking these vegetables together in a couple of inches of water, you get a good and healthy vegetable dish, slightly brothy, flavorful, and satisfying (especially if accompanied by good bread). 

Roman puntarelle season

The season for Roman puntarelle is winter: they are available from October to April, after which they make way for other vegetables. Many people who particularly love them freeze them to have them available all year round.


Do you want to know everything about puntarelle? Read here.