Taking the Bite out of Radicchio

by Mary on February 3, 2012

It’s hard not to love this color:

half a head of round radicchio

round (Chioggia) radicchio

But the flavor? While I’ve always appreciated how raddicchio looks in a salad, I’ve never liked the bitter taste. And my children have refused flat out to eat it. But I got a great tip from A Spicy Perspective: soak the radicchio in ice water for half an hour. I tried it, and amazingly, it worked very well. I imagine it could affect the nutritional content of the leaves to soak them, but the alternative for me would be not serving radicchio at all. I threw some chopped red onion in the bowl to soak, too. I wanted to put bits of red onion in the salad for additional color and thought that while I was at it, I might as well take the bite out of that, too.

Everyone, including my seventeen-year-old, found the radicchio quite mild and ate it in the salad with no complaints.

radicchio leaves in a bowl of ice water

radicchio leaves soaking in a bowl of ice water

 

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