puntarelle alla romana
when we were in italy, someone brought home a head of puntarelle from the market and asked me to fix it with dinner. i had no idea what it was and just cut it up and braised it as a cooked green with garlic. well, when i served it, people looked at me quizzically and said, “you cooked it”?! little did i know, it makes a fabulous salad!
the key is slicing it up into very thin strips and soaking them in ice water until they curl up and create myriad surfaces for soaking up a garlicky, anchovy vinaigrette.
(for a vegetarian version, use mustard in place of the anchovies.)
(to view the recipe, click on the title above)
Ingredients
Instructions
slice puntarelle thinly, lengthwise, into long strips and soak in a bowl of icy-cold water for 30 min to an hour
(some recipes say to remove the outer leafy leaves and use them in soup or salad, but if there are only a few, i slice them up too and add to the water)mash the garlic clove and anchovies together with a fork in a small bowl (or mortar and pestle) and stir in the vinegar
whisk the olive oil in to this mixture and season with the red pepper flakes (or you can drizzle the oil onto the puntarelle separately later and then top with the garlic-anchovy-vinegar)when the puntarelle strips have curled up nicely, drain and dry and put them in a serving bowl
toss in the dressing and sprinkle with the black pepper (or drizzle the oil on top and portion out the salad, then top each serving with a spoon of garlic mixture)
serve with crusty bread
