Puntarelle
When I was little, my mom liked to play a game where she would randomly move things in the house to see if her kids noticed, and we always did. That ability has stuck with me throughout life, nowhere more so than at the farmers market. Every week I’ll take a walk throughout the market after getting my stand set up to see what’s available and sometimes I spy something new. It can be a vendor or new products, either way it rarely slips my attention.
But at the end of the day a few weeks ago when I was doing my shopping I came across an unusual curly green ball and picked it up to examine it. Before I could ask what it was a string of Italian rolled off the farmer's tongue— Puntarelle alla Romana—and they proceeded to show me how to clean it, including soaking the thinly cut pieces in ice water to make them curly. This intrigued me because I’m all about pretty food. The kicker was a simple vinaigrette to serve with it made with olive oil, garlic, and anchovy. Now we were talking. I couldn’t wait to get this thing home and prepare it. However, post market Sundays are not a time for me in the kitchen and my enticing, new vegetable would have to wait until the following day.
Monday morning chores were spent in freezing wind so I wasn't exactly up for a cold salad at lunchtime, but after an afternoon of warming up I decided to dig in to this interesting orb. A little research informed me that it is part of the chicory family, similar to endive, radicchio, and escarole, the bitter winter vegetables now appearing at the market. I have been a big fan of grilled radicchio salad after dinner at a famed wood fired oven restaurant in Portland, Oregon a few years ago and I look forward to these bitter greens showing up at market in the late fall.
Unfamiliar with puntarelle, I learned that it was selectively bred to have a tender heart, somewhat akin to artichokes, however, with the texture of celery root. It is also extremely popular in Rome and is a staple in Italian delis and grocery stores.
Puntarelle is a versatile vegetable that offers more than one meal. Julianne the hearts of the buds for salad and save the outer leaves for cooking, either in a sauté or a soup. There is even acute little gadget specifically for cutting puntarelle, but I had to settle for a sharp knife. A mandolin would work equally well, but that's one kitchen gadget I tend to shy away from having cut myself one too many times over the years.
One of the seed dealers must have done some good marketing for this heirloom variety because the following week another vegetable vendor showed up with fresh puntarelle, too. Patrons freshly returned from Italy ooooooo’d over its availability.
This is one of the best things about shopping at the farmers market— finding new and interesting foods that one normally would not commonly find either at a commercial grocery store or in the United States. Over the years I have taken for granted my access to items such as brightly colored cauliflower and my favorite, kalettes. This is also the time of year, when the first pressing of oils from the olive harvests start showing up, too.
As we enter the holiday season, consider putting together simple baskets of items fresh from the market for easy and much appreciated gifts even if a Puntarelle kind of looks like a baby Grinch’s head.