Pretty as a Picture

We have become familiar not just with the deep maroon colours of radicchio but also with the asperity of its taste. While there are even more bitter members of the endive family (cicoria and puntarella come to mind) radicchio is still quite a shock to the novice palate and used sparingly in those salad mixes so beloved of supermarkets.

I am not a fan of those bags of salad. Unless we are talking about mesclun – the Niçoise mix of various leaves picked in infancy, with an intense, herby flavour – I am a one-leaf sort of man. I do not want a salad to be a marriage of texture and dressing; I want to acknowledge the delicate flavour of a buttery lettuce heart, or a crisp, mildly bitter Cos (a.k.a. Romaine) or the full-on milky bitterness of an endive. I use a fresh head of lettuce and prepare it – washing and spinning – for the occasion and the dish. No leaf incarcerated in a plastic bag for several days can possibly compare.