Radicchio salad @ microwave

For ➋
40 g blue cheese
40 g chive oil
25 g hazelnuts, peeled
10 g chives
120 g radicchio, half of a head
olive oil
salt
50 g buttermilk

(Optional: Place blue cheese in the freezer. While this step is purely aesthetic—frozen cheese will curl prettily when it is peeled—the freezer is a good place to store blue cheese so that it's always ready for salads and such.)
Make the chive oil with blanched fresh chives, blend them with oil, strain through a sieve.
Heat oven to 165°C.
Spread hazelnuts on a sheet pan and toast until golden brown, about 30 m.
As the hazelnuts toast, agitate the sheet pan every 5 m for even browning.
Remove hazelnuts from oven and transfer to a large zip-lock bag. Lay the bag flat on a work surface and smooth it so that nuts spread out in an even, single layer. Roll a rolling pin over the bag, repeating until hazelnuts are crushed into small crumbles.
Mince the chives.
Wash radicchio and pat dry with a paper towel. Remove any damaged or wilted outer leaves. Cut radicchio into quarters.
Dress each piece with a generous amount of olive oil.
Place radicchio in microwave-safe dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
Cook on high for 40–50 s. Puncture plastic with a knife to allow steam to escape.
Remove from microwave. Radicchio should be warm and wilted, with just a little crunch remaining.
Cut white core from the radicchio and assemble leaves in a serving bowl. Dress with salt, minced chives, buttermilk, and chive oil.
Just before serving, sprinkle hazelnuts over salad and shave or crumble blue cheese on top.

Filet d'Anvers salad with endives

For ➍
320 g filet d'Anvers
4 endives*
1 radicchio
5 tbs olive oil
3 tbs wine vinegar
pepper

Arrange the thin filet d'Anvers on plates.
Cut the endives into thin strips and arrange them over the meat.
Make a dressing of olive oil and vinegar and a turn of the pepper mill. Sprinkle over the endives.
Serve with bread and farm butter.

'Filet d'Anvers' is smoked beef, a speciality of Antwerp. A similar method is used for smoked horse meat. In 19th century UK, horses were used in mining, but the horses could not be slaughtered for human consumption. Old horses were shipped to Antwerp, where they were slaughtered. The meat was then salted, dried and smoked.

Scottadito di agnello al limone (Lazio grilled lamb)

For ➍
16 lamb rib chops
zest of 2 lemons*
4 tbs fresh mint (or rosemary)*
5 tbs/8 cl olive oil
2 cloves garlic
sea salt & cracked black pepper
lemon wedges (for serving)

Place all the ingredients except the lamb (and lemon wedges) in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped together.*/**
Rub the mixture into the lamb chops and refrigerate them for 2 h.*/**
Bring the lamb to room temperature.
Preheat the grill, and then grill the chops until they are medium rare, or about 2 m on each side.
Place the chops on a serving platter with the lemon wedges and serve hot with a tossed green salad (arugula, radicchio, dandelion greens, lettuce ...).

*Use 2 tbs of lemon juice to have a stronger lemon taste. Replace mint with rosemary, laurel & thyme. Let it work for 3 h.
**The Marche interpretation of this recipe adds 100 g grinded cured lard (or prosciutto) to the rubbing mixture and let it work for 12 h.

'Scottadito' roughly translates as 'burned fingers', as it is said that this dish is so delicious that you will not be able to wait until it cools before you dig in and enjoy it, burning your fingers in the process.

Pomegranate, endives & feta salad

For ➍
3 stalks of Brussels endive or/& radicchio
1 large pomegranate
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbs raspberry vinegar (or regular red vinegar)
a handful of mint leaves
150 g good feta cheese, crumbled
salt & pepper

Remove the seeds from the pomegranate.
Mix the pomegranate seeds with the chopped onion and the raspberry vinegar and let the flavors soak for about 15 m.
Break the endive leaves and radicchio leaves apart and arrange on a large plate or in a salad bowl. Add the pomegranate mixture, add the mint leaves and the feta and top with some mint leaves.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

More pomegranate salads: pomegranate, tomatoes & garlic, warm lamb salad with pomegranate & mint, pomegranate & cucumber salad, pomegranate & quinoa salad, Friuli winter salad, pomegranate fruit salad

Spaghetti with vegetables & ricotta salata

For ➍
2 large eggplants
500 g small tomatoes, or canned plum tomatoes, drained
6 tbs extra virgin olive oil
8 tbs salt
400 g spaghetti
4 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ teaspoon crushed dried chillies
large handful fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
100 g ricotta salata, finely grated (or feta cheese, crumbled)
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cut off the tops and bases of the eggplants. Cut across into 2. Cut each piece lengthwise into sticks. Place into a colander and sprinkle with 1 ts of salt. Place the colander over a bowl and leave the eggplants for 30-40 m to disgorge some of their juices.
When using fresh tomatoes, squeeze them over the sink to get rid of most of their juices and seeds. Coarsely chop the tomatoes.
Pat the eggplants dry with kitchen paper to remove the salt and excess juices.
Heat 4 tbs of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add ½ the eggplants pieces and fry, turning occasionally, until golden-brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain. Repeat for the remaining eggplant pieces.
Remove the pan from the heat to allow the oil remaining in the frying pan to cool.
Place 4.5 l water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Add the salt, then the spaghetti and cook until al dente.
Shortly before the spaghetti is ready, add the remaining olive oil and the garlic to the frying pan and return it to the heat. As soon as the garlic begins to sizzle, add the crushed chillies and the tomatoes and cook over a high heat for 2-3 m.
Add the eggplants and season .
Drain the cooked spaghetti. Add to the sauce.
Add the basil and ½ of the ricotta salata or feta. Mix well.
Spoon equal portions of the spaghetti and sauce into 4 warmed bowls and sprinkle each with the remaining cheese.

All ricotta (meaning 'recooked') varieties are Italian fresh whey cheeses, made from the leftover from the production of mozzarella, pecorino or provolone. To ferment the whey it is heated to make it curl. Then it is heated a second time, so the liquid can be seperated from the cheese. It is made from sheep or cow milk with regional differences.
Ricotta salata is produced from the whey of sheep milk on Sardinia and Sicily and has a mild, slightly salty taste, hence 'salata'. It is sold aged, drained and dried, and can then be crumbled like feta.It suits the bitterness of walnuts and pairs well with the chicory family, such as endives or radicchio di Treviso. It works alongside artichokes or wild mushrooms. Grate over gnocchi or pasta, such as cavatelli, or orchiette, or crumble it on top of a crisp green salad.
Read more spaghetti & linguine recipes: a quick spaghetti, spaghetti with scallops & tomatoes, scallops & rucola spaghetti, spaghetti alla carbonara, shrimps fra diavolo, raw tomato spaghetti, spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with small clams, spaghetti with oil & garlic, spaghetti alla puttanesca, Palermo spaghetti with tomatoes & mint, American-Italian spaghetti with meatballs, vermicelli with parsley sauce, shrimps & Brie linguine, butter & tomato pasta sauce, lemon pasta with sea spinach.

Grilled endives

For ➍
4 thick endives, about 1 kg
salt & black pepper
5 cl extra virgin olive oil

Turn on the broiler/grill.
Discard any of the endives’ bruised or wilted outer leaves. Remove the discolored surface portion of the stem. Wash the endives under cold running water, then shake off the moisture.
Cut each endive in half lengthwise. Make a cut in the root end, cutting half as deep as the root is thick and running the cut from the bottom to where the leaves join the root.
Place the endives cut side up on a broiling pan. Sprinkle with salt and grindings of pepper and pour the olive oil over it in a thin stream. Insert the pan in the broiler at the level farthest away from the heat.
After 10 m, turn the endives over and baste with the oil in the pan.
After 7 or 8 m, turn the endiver over once more so the cut side will again be facing up. Baste again with the oil from the pan, directing it, as much as possible, between one leaf and another, and adding fresh, raw oil if necessary.
Bake for about 5 m, depending on the thickness of the endive. It is done when you can easily pierce the root end with a fork. The tips of the leaves will be somewhat blackened. Serve hot or lukewarm.

This recipe is based on a traditional way of grilling radicchio di Treviso. This purple curly cousin of the same family as the Belgian endives can be difficult to find. Use sparkling white endives or the purplish variety.
Read the history of Belgian endives.
Read tip on broiling.

Risotto col vino (red wine risotto)

For ➏
500 g Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, or other short grained rice such as Arborio
150 g unsalted butter
½ onion, minced
90 cl simmering beef stock
60 cl dry red wine, warmed*
80 g Parmigiano or Grana Padano cheese, freshly grated
salt

Heat ½ the butter in a pot, add the rice, and cook over a very low flame, stirring.

In the meantime, sauté the onion separately, in 50 g of butter, until it is lightly browned. Keep warm.Publish Post

When the rice is translucent, begin adding the wine, a glass at a time, and letting it evaporate between additions. Then add broth, a ladle at a time, and stir in the onions. Once the rice reaches the al dente stage turn off the heat, stir in the remaining butter, the cheese, and serve.

Embellish the dish, serving it with roasted radicchio, slivered almonds and parsley.

A classic dish from Northern Italy where it is cooked with the local red wine. Use a dry variety, like Barbera, Barolo, Valpolicelle. Read the risotto tip.

Friuli winter salad

For ➍, ➏ as a starter
230 g (green) leaves, a mixture of radicchio*, watercress & endives
150 g speck or raw bacon in 1 piece
150 g spicy Italian sausage
125 g cooked chestnuts
1½ tbs groundnut oil
30 g toasted walnuts
seeds from ½ pomegranate**
dressing:
½ tbs balsamic vinegar
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the speck into cubes, about 2 cm square. Take the skin off the sausages. Break the sausage meat up into little chunks. Cut the chestnuts in half. (When already broken into chunks, leave them alone.)
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together. Tear the radicchio leaves into pieces and pull the leaves off the endives. Put them into a broad shallow bowl.
Heat 1 tbs oil in a frying pan and cook the speck and sausage over a high heat until well coloured and cooked through. Throw this onto the leaves.
Heat the remaining ½ tbs oil and quickly sauté the chestnuts until they are hot. Season with salt and pepper.
Throw them, and the walnuts onto the leaves. Add the dressing and toss.
Sprinkle the pomegranate* seeds over the top and serve immediately.

*Replace with (purple) endives.
**Pomegranate seeds can be replaced by a fried egg.

The (Süd-Tiroler) speck is a juniper-flavored ham from the Tyrol region, now split between Italy and Austria. Speck bears both the tradition of Mediterranean salt curing and central European smoking.
Read more Friuli recipes: Friuli cherries' strudel, Trieste beef stew.
More pomegranate salads: pomegranate,endives & feta, pomegranate, tomatoes & garlic, warm lamb salad with pomegranate & mint, pomegranate & cucumber salad, pomegranate & quinoa salad, pomegranate fruit salad