Radicchio. Do you ever find yourself gazing fondly at it and thinking, gee, you’re a really ace colour? We do. That magenta is unreal. We’re big on eating this bitter leafy veg, lapping it up in salads, pastas, risottos, soups and occasionally, we even enjoy it braised. (That’s how we roll at the LSC; we love outliers like braised radicchio). When cooked, it looses some of its bitterness and – sob– much of that glorious colour but never mind. Thrown in salads it’s spectacularly pretty and particularly great with ingredients that have a sweet or rich edge such as walnuts, pears, balsamic vinegar, roast pumpkin chunks and good parmesan. They’re all lovely foils for that signature bitterness. 

Radicchio is related to the lettuce family but is actually a type of chicory, along with endives like curly endive and Belgian endive. It probably started out as a greenish foraged weed growing around the Mediterranean, where it’s been eaten for thousands of years. It wasn’t domesticated until the Renaissance period when the epicentre of radicchio growing was the Veneto region in northern Italy; today, popular varieties take their names from towns where they were developed. Such as Chioggia, Castelfranco and Treviso. At some point, Italians tinkered with ‘forcing’ and ‘blanching’ techniques, involving (and we paraphrase) digging the plants out of their fields early, trimming their roots, then finishing them in a dark, damp place to encourage new growth and spectacular colours, white stems and a crunchy texture. All of this involves a LOT of work, which is why ridiculously pretty varieties like Treviso and Gorizia, which some growers individually trim, soak in cold water to encourage leaf curling, then individually hand-fluff so they look like flowers, are so prized. The Chioggia is the variety we get in shops in this part of the world, which is neither forced or blanched and was developed as recently as the 1950s. Farmers in Italy keep back seeds every year from their crop, choosing carefully so the next generation has exactly the colours, shapes and other traits they want, and they guard their genetics and processes carefully. Radicchio are not all purple and round; some are pinkish, others yellow with variegated magenta spots. The elegant Treviso variety has long, thin, elegant, slightly curling leaves. Gorgeous. 

While they grow, radicchio lose a little bitter punch through regular watering, while their colour intensifies when the weather turns cooler. About that colour. It’s caused by pigmented antioxidants called anthocyanins, which also colour certain berries, grapes, apples, plums, red cabbage and pomegranate. (Note that beetroot does not get its colour from these – beets contains betalains, another antioxidant). Anthocyanin-rich foods have been linked to increased longevity, cancer prevention and a neuro-protective effect among other goodies, but who really knows.