does anyone have recipes/meal ideas for cicorino rosso?

i went to an osteopath recently for a shoulder problem. a bit to my surprise, apart from the actual physical therapy, she told me to eat bitter tasting foods and recommended chicory. i then found cicorino rosso and have been eating it

before this i must have walked past cicorino rosso a million times in the supermarket. i also must have had it in salads in restaurants but never much noticed it. but now i think that it is a truly great taste to throw into a meal. i have been chopping and steaming it so that it is warm with a warm meal (it turns towards brown on heating so some of the purple is lost)

does anyone else like it? i would be interested in any ways to include it in meals

i was also reading up about bitter tasting foods, which do maybe stimulate digestion and have health benefits. i don't know much about that, but does anyone have any other bitter tasting foods or drinks that they like? i tried a green chicory but no real kick to it, it was more like lettuce

p.s. yes cicorino rosso just dropped out of season, for a few months, i also noticed that just after i started eating it

I like it.
We have it lot in the summer as I my father-in-law grows so much of it. My wife says you need to slice it incredibly thinly if you are going to have it in a salad.

I never considered eating it any other way apart from occasionally roasting it and then drizzling balsamic vinegar over it but maybe I will if you get some interesting recipes on this thread.

I can't help as I don't like it = don't eat it. But when you google you get tons of recipes.

What crossed my mind when reading your post was that mother nature actually made things bitter to prevent living things from eating them. Or something like that

I know red chicorrée is perfectly fine so I'm sure many other things are too.

ah, that is a very interesting point - it relates to the whole topic that it's not in the interests of plants to be eaten (except for the fruits that are therefore sweet) and plants warn eaters off with the taste

but also to say - cicorino rosso is bitter but not crazy bitter, actually i like it, i was eating it more while it was around than other greens because it has an enjoyable taste kick

and yes, agreed, googling for something gets all. but it is probably good as well to have a local forum to chat about it. that way people raise interesting ideas that you would not otherwise think about...

Absolutely, I was not trying to stifle your thread.

I like googling for recipes when I have discovered something I don't know how to turn into a meal.

I had to eat chicorée as a child (the white one - it was bad enough) on regular basis and absolutely hated it.
Maybe I should try it again now, wouldn't be the first food I'd change my mind about once the "trauma" is overcome.

Grapefruit and Brussel sprout (an other thing I only eat at an English Christmas and only because I'm polite ) also have these bitter constituents you're looking for. I also just read that they're not only healthy but also help losing weight.

So yeah, now that you started this I look forward what people come up with that might be worth considering.

__________________
It's all a matter or perspective.
So move your butt and look at it from the other side

Make a tuna mix /tinned tuna, corn, onions, garlic, mayo, olive oil, some greens, or tomato, or gerkins, or cucumber or whatever you fancy/, spoon the mix into cicorino leaves, eat.

That's right. I also know people who make a dip sauce, then dip the leaves in it.

i have always liked brussels sprouts from growing up. i understand there must be something bad there for people who don't like them, but i just cannot taste it. for me, cicorino rosso is a lot more strong tasting than brussels sprouts

i also like white grapefruit, really weird you say this! on its own a white grapefruit makes you smack your lips. i like to carve the segments and spoon them with the juice into a bowl with dried coconut / seeds to soak it up. i put some red fruit on top and it makes a great breakfast bowl. dried coconut in the bottom of the bowl, made moist with soaked-up grapefruit juice, is very delicious

in any case yes, i think you should try chicory again!

In salads or in risotto with guanciale, made some the other day.

Tom

We eat a lot of the white chicoree. Anything from meat stew to curries, we just use the leaves like tiny boats, load the stuff on it and eat. I sometimes top the chicoree boats with mayo, marinated onion and some smoked fish.

Interesting.

I was gonna buy some "next time" but somehow my subconscious left it off the list for today. Should have logged on to EF in the morning.
Still planning on it though.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-walnut-recipe

https://somethingnewfordinner.com/re...th-prosciutto/

Here are two fabulous recipes from Ottolenghi. I personally don't find these leaves to be bitter enough to need sugar, but well...

We eat a lot of escarole and chicory. I sauté it in olive oil and garlic and eat it with white beans (Cannelloni especially) to which i‘ve added roasted or fresh garlic, Parmesan, olive oil and a bit of lemon. Mash up the beans, and yum.

That sounds terrific. I can imagine the kick of the chicory going really well with white beans and I will give it a try. Is it correct that you also heat the beans, and do you do that separately, mash them up, and then add them to the escarole and chicory at the end?

Rick Stein has got a great recipe for white beans, which is taken from a classic Greek recipe -
https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/gig...tomatoes_47546

I often make it not with fresh spinach but with frozen gehacktes spinach. That turns into a kind of thick sauce with the tomatoes, rather than the tomatoey sauce with individual spinach leaves - great for a cold winter day filling meal.

I cook the beans (in a pressure cooker), mash them and add olive oil, roasted garlic, rosemary, grated Parmesan, salt, pepper and lemon - keep them warm. Separately sauté the greens with olive oil, garlic, and pepper, salt, maybe lemon. Then usually we‘ll eat the beans atop the greens. I usually make extra beans .... my husband loves them on bread or crackers.

This sounds amazing.

Well, I went for the chicory-trial - I'm still not crazy about it, I'm afraid.

While I did some research about it, I came about a TCM site, which mentioned some products as considered bitter, which surprised me:
Red wine, beer, quince, eggplant, rucola, asparagus, turmeric (I use that in powder form), zucchini, cocoa powder ...... (more on the site, German)

Many of those I would not have considered bitter but I'm pleased to know my diet is fine re bitter constituents without having to put up with chicory

However, hope this gave you some ideas.

I like these and I like bitter taste in general. However, sadly a few year ago this study made some headlines: "Individual differences in bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits" I guess I always kind of knew it anyways

Lol. Perhaps the next "study" will reveal some other things...

Actually many of these used to be bitter, but gene selective breeding have removed the bitterness from them. For example, eggplants. It is commonly suggested that you salt an eggplant before cooking to take the bitterness out. You will be lucky to find an eggplant which has any bitterness in it at all. As a side note, Asians are crazy about bitter food and I am talking about real bitter stuff like bitter melon. Thankfully my mom has an overly sensitive bitter taste bud so I escaped eating too much bitter food in childhood.