A little bitterness...
A word about bitter greens. My first introduction to bitter greens was when staying with my family in Italy where I had my first experience of eating straight out of the garden. My uncle and I would harvest salad every night for my aunt to dress and serve with dinner. We harvested 2 salads, one for the Americans (my uncle and I) and one for my Italian aunt. Our salad was made of regular lettuce while hers was deep purple and made of radicchio. I was young and wanted to impress my Italian relatives, so I began to share my Aunt's nightly salad. I fell in love with that radicchio salad. She cut it into thin ribbons, dressed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to cut the bitterness and added pieces of fresh fruit and nuts to balance it. It was unlike any other salad I had ever had, complex and refreshing.
As a farmer, I love growing bitter greens, they have no pest pressure and they grow perfectly in our Northeastern climate. Chefs are excited to get local versions of produce usually only imported from Italy and I love putting bitter greens in everything I cook. Not to mention that bitter greens are also super good for you, they have excellent cleansing properties and help with digestion.
I have discovered that adding a little sweetness (honey, fruit or maple syrup), fat (oil or butter), a little salt and acid (vinegars), the bitterness gets cut and a truly complex flavor arises. Radicchio is great in salads, roasted or grilled in quarters, or sauteed and added to pasta or quinoa. Escarole is perfect in soups or with tomato sauce as a red sauce for pasta, rice, or meat. I know it's not everyone's taste and it takes a little fiddling with to get to the right balance of bitterness, but we invite you to try it!
Scenes from the farm: radicchio and fennel about to get roasted, beautiful swiss chard, potatoes at dusk, summer crops looking good.
To choose from in the share:
kale
collard greens
swiss chard
head lettuce
salad mix
arugula
specialty greens mix
spring onions
beets
carrots
broccoli
napa cabbage
green cabbage
escarole
radicchio
fennel
spinach
peas
hakurei turnips
Sauteed Radicchio with Honey and Balsamic Vinegar
Serve this simple side of sauteed radicchio with grilled steak, chicken, or Italian sausages.
Ingredients
- 2 heads radicchio, cored and torn into bite-size pieces
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey