Radicchio: a single word for a whole world of red and white leaves. As always, it began in a wild, spontaneous way, with bitter Cichorium intybus, which grows all over the planet and has many names. Particular cultivation and development took place in the north of Italy: Veneto, Trentino, Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Red leaves as we know them started in the early 1900s, when Belgian and Italian agronomists developed a technique called imbianchimento (whitening, blanching or preforcing). Pulled from the soil and placed in water in dark sheds, the plants’ chlorophyll production is inhibited, causing them to lose their green pigmentation and develop dark red, white-veined and sturdy leaves. Genetic selection, local competition and time saw the development of distinctive varieties, with different degrees of earthy bitterness, each taking the name of the places where they were developed. Radicchio grown in these places is protected, but of course it can be grown anywhere you care to plant.
Round headed, cabbage-like radicchio di Chioggia has burgundy leaves with creeping white veins, which can be smoother or more rumpled, depending on how tight the head is. Chioggia is bitter, but also creamy, and good shredded or ripped into green salad or mixed with pears and cheese.
Radicchio rosso di Treviso (another town in Veneto) also has burgundy leaves, but with thick, white ribs that grow longer and overlap into a tip, meaning the whole thing looks like a plump, oblong bullet. Then there is radicchio tardivo. Also oblong, but with tapered, red-violet leaves that, thanks to a two-stage growing process, don’t curl into a tip, but escape out and look a bit like an enthusiastic flower or the tentacles of a sea creature.
Both Treviso and tardivo are crisp and, although bitter, ideal for salad given the right dressing; in the case of expensive and curling tardivo, some feel it a travesty not to show off those tentacles with pears and cheese, or orange and fennel. However, I think in all three cases, and despite the fact it means they turn from bright red to brown, cooking brings out the best in them. That’s because it tempers the bitterness, turns crisp into soft and velvety, and brings out the warm and nutty side.
The ways are many. Cut into wedges and either bake on an oiled tray until soft with crisp tips, or cover with cheesy bechamel for a gratin. Grilled, griddled, sauteed with onion for pasta or shredded and stirred into risotto – good ways all of them. Or roast with chicken, which is this week’s recipe, and my favourite dinner this week.
Roast chicken with radicchio
Serves 4
1 small chicken (about 1.2kg), spatchcocked, or half a large chicken or 8 thighs
Olive oil
Salt
2 small heads of radicchio, each cut into quarters
Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt. Put it skin side down in an oiled dish that is large enough to accommodate the radicchio when you add it later. If you are using a spatchcocked or half-bird, press it down for as much contact as possible.
Put the radicchio quarters in a bowl and toss with a few tablespoons of olive oil and some salt.
Roast the chicken backbone up at 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 for 25 minutes, then turn so it’s now breast side up and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Add the radicchio, arranging it around and under the chicken, and return to the oven for a final 15 minutes, turning the radicchio once halfway through.
