👋+: Radicchio & Walnut Pasta

embracing bitter notes + a pantry Q&A

Allô! 👋

Hello! Welcome to the seasonal sundays section of the good food at home newsletter. This is a weekly-ish paid supplement that aims to provide simple recipes for those seasonal ingredients that may sometimes elude or confound us in the kitchen. The main newsletter will always be free, but by subscribing to seasonal sundays you will not only be able to access extra recipes + the full archive, you’ll also help to support all the researching, cooking, documenting & writing that goes into sharing this newsletter with you. If you’d like to be a part of a growing community and show you value this work, subscribing is easy and costs less than £2 per week (less than £1/week with an annual subscription or free if you refer some friends, and the first 7 days are always free)! Why not give it a shot? We’d love to have you 💛

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Radicchio! What’s not to love about it? It’s bold, it’s beautiful, it’s… bitter. Ah, yes. Radicchio can be bitter, but for me and many others, there’s nothing better than the refreshingly bittersweet bite of a chicory, especially as we transition from deep green kales and cabbages to lighter and more delicate early spring leaves.

A member of the leaf chicory family, radicchio is a vegetable whose season can vary widely depending on where it is grown. Generally available from mid-winter to early spring in milder climates, it is more likely to be found freshly harvested in autumn in snowier climes. Luckily, radicchio not only keeps for a surprisingly long time if stored properly, it also overwinters very nicely if grown under cover — this means, even in places like Norway and Canada, you can find newly harvested radicchio in early spring!

At a time of year where very little is growing, let alone ready for harvest, cellared and overwintered chicories and other leafy veg can truly be a great boon to those of us looking for a taste of something fresh.

Last year, when I was living in France, I bought a beautiful Trévise (as the market gardener called it). As I was paying for my loot, he asked what I was going to cook with it. I told him I didn’t know yet (when at a farmers’ market, I usually just pick up what looks freshest and most enticing, but this approach seemed to puzzle many of the food growers I met there) and his eyes lit up — “Then I’ll tell you what to do with it!”. He then proceeded to describe in alluring detail how to render some fat out of a handful of lardons, sizzle some stale cubes of baguette in the pork fat so as to make quick savoury croutons, and whisk up a speedy Dijon mustard vinaigrette, all while poaching an egg in a separate pot. “Toss the radicchio leaves into the pan with the lardons and the croutons, stir with a light touch just until the dressing is warmed, and serve right away with the poached egg on top”. He also mentioned something about melting a very specific wedge of cheese and enjoying it all with additional chunks of freshly torn baguette, but by then I was salivating too hard to focus on any additional minute details.

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This recipe is my Italian take on things. I don’t know if it’s because I was born in Italy or because I find good pasta easier to rustle up than French baguettes (especially in my Norwegian neck of the woods), but when it comes to food I do more often find myself leaning toward the eastern side of the Alps than the west (though, at other times, I really can’t make up my mind).

radicchio & walnut pasta

If you and/or those you are cooking with (or for) are truly hesitant about enjoying the sweet bitterness of radicchio, there is a trick. You can separate the chicory’s leaves from their core up to a day (and at least thirty minutes) before eating them and plunge them into cold water — just pop them into a bowl and leave them in the fridge until ready to use. Doing so can help remove some of the compounds that make bitter leaves difficult to palate and, as a result, should make them easier to adopt into one’s repertoire and enjoy. Just make sure you dry the leaves well in a salad spinner before cooking!

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INGREDIENTS