Expand Your Radicchio Repertoire

Every year, a group of food lovers in the Pacific Northwest collaborates to celebrate and promote radicchio. Local chefs feature assorted varieties of the vegetable on their menus, farmers exchange knowledge, and participants socialize at a gala featuring radicchio‑centric dishes. The event, known as Chicory Week, was inspired by the sagre (regional food festivals) of Italy, where radicchio was first cultivated, and is the brainchild of Jason Salvo and Siri Erickson‑Brown, owners of Local Roots Farm in Duvall, Washington, who have been growing radicchio for 15 years.

After weeks of working with radicchio in my own kitchen, I grew to share Jason and Siri’s enthusiasm and wanted to join them in championing this “beautiful food,” as Jason calls it, and its different personalities. Enjoy radicchio raw to capitalize on the assertive bitterness of its crisp, burgundy‑hued leaves, or experience the lovely transformation that happens when heat is applied to the vegetable: Potent flavor compounds in the radicchio break down, unearthing a softer side with an underlying nutty sweetness.

The degree to which radicchio is cooked affects how much its taste changes. When briefly seared in a hot, oil-slicked skillet, its bright leaves darken and turn tender, yet most of its bravado is preserved. Roasting incites a more dramatic transformation, and braising goes further still, producing luxuriously tender bites that are sweet, rich, and mellow, with only a faintly bitter quality.

The following three recipes demonstrate radicchio’s range. For a warm salad in which wedges of the chicory are deeply browned in a hot skillet, I complement its gutsiness with sweet, refreshing apple; rich toasted walnuts; salty Parmesan; and a creamy balsamic dressing. In a longer-cooked medley that highlights radicchio’s affinity for root vegetables, thick wedges are roasted with chunks of potato, parsnip, fennel, and shallot and drizzled with a lemony, herb-spiked dressing. Lastly, a rich braise calls for simmering shredded radicchio and chopped Granny Smith apple in heavy cream until the radicchio wilts into silky, mild-tasting ribbons and then enlivening it with a touch of cider vinegar.