Chicory and chicory 🆙

Difference between chicory and chicory

Chicory is a plant of the Composite family or Asteraceae, botanically classified as Cichorium Intybus.

There are many varieties of chicory, which are divided, in turn, into chicory catalogne from leaves and stems, root chicory, radicchio or coffee chicory, according to their function.

Bianca from Milan, sugar loaf, variegated from Castelfranco, Treviso chicory are the best known.

The least known are those with important roots, such as Magdeburg chicory or Soncinol chicory, bitter rind chicory or Chiavari chicory.

The Witloof chicory, which you may not have known is the well-known Belgian salad, as it is more commonly called.

And then we have the chicory asparagus (also called catalonia the cicoria cimata e mazzocchio) which in one of its two varieties produces the known shoots that hide inside the head and which are precisely the famous puntarelle. There is no shortage of bud chicory, cut chicory and wild chicory.

A family as rich as it is beneficial for the organism, whose vegetables are above all known for their virtues purifying and remineralizing, excellent for embarking on a detoxifying diet.

Puntarelle: how to clean and cook them

The chicory is therefore one delicious and particular part of the asparagus chicory, its shoots.

Often very expensive in the supermarket, where they are usually sold already clean, they are sold in whole clumps on market stalls and they are usually cheaper.

Clean the sprouts and turn them into a delicious dish of chicory in the Roman style it requires a little practice and "art".

Here's how to do it in a Bittersweet video tutorial, where chef Alessandra Ruggeri shows you what needs to be done.

The chicory so clean and "curled" they can be seasoned with an emulsion based on:
> extra virgin olive oil;
> lemon or white vinegar
> minced garlic (or crushed and then removed if you prefer);
> a couple of anchovies cut into pieces and mashed.

Raw or cooked chicory?

In addition to the raw, Roman-style version, chicory can also be prepared cooked. In this case the shoots can be simply cut into 4 and the leaves can also be used.

They do simply boil for a couple of minutes in a saucepan with plenty of lightly salted water, then drain and sauté them in a pan with a crushed rump of garlic, extra virgin olive oil and chilli to taste.

Once cooked in this way, Fr.they can also be used to season pasta, spaghetti for example, adding only grated pecorino or parmesan to taste and pine nuts or other dried fruit (walnuts, hazelnuts) to create a crunchy contrast

Read: "Vegetables and aromatic plants", by Ennio Lazzarini