One find Winter day, I went – as when I’m looking for delicious and fresh herbs like sage for example- to the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet. And came ‘face to face’ with this enormous green bunch. One of the vendors who I often meet and talk to (not only is she Italian, but she’s also a great cook), spoke greatly about puntarelle. There I was, leaving the department store with my green gigantic bunch as if I had found caviar for few euros. Here’s a traditional Roman recipe with the heart of the puntarelle. The salad is supposed to be served with salted anchovies but I’ve used fresh ones which are less salty and soaked in vinegar. My fishmonger sells the best ones… Delicious ! You have to keep the green leaves too; I’ll soon share with you another recipe on how to cook them !res! Ingredients:
- 1 puntarelle bunch
- 1 cup fresh anchovies, diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- Guérande salt
- Pepper
Recipe:
- Cut the green leaves of the puntarelle. Remove the top leaves which are more bitter (keep the rest for my next recipe of roasted puntarelle and pumpkin)
- Keep the ‘heart’ of the green bunch (check the pic above)
- Slice each stalk lengthwise in half and begin cutting each of these halves into lengthwise strips
- Transfer your strips of puntarelle into the ice bath (water and ice cubes). It will take roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour for them to fully curl and become crunchy
- Drain them and place them in a large bowl
- Add olive oil, vinegar and the anchovies
- Season to taste before serving
Enjoy !