Chicory, Cicoria Rossa Di Verona

Cicoria Rossa Di Verona Chicory. Mid-late.  A lovely heirloom radicchio, Rossa di Verona has deep red, heart shaped leaves wrapped tightly around one another to form a solid, round head. This variety offers beautiful salads with red leaves .    Later and hardier than Treviso, it has a sharp flavor that mellows when grilled or treated with a hot oil dressing. Sow Rossa di Verona chicory seeds in May/June and transplant in July for fall harvest. Cut off all the leaves above the crown in early fall. It's the resulting new growth in cold weather that produces the characteristic small, compact, cabbage-like head. They can even be overwintered for spring harvest.  It is harvested as a salad to be cut in autumn or spring when it takes the shape of a sphere. Resistant to low temperatures.

You must try them grilled. Pull off the outermost wrapper leaves, and then cut the head into quarters down the core. Drizzle each of these with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and fresh black pepper. Pop them on the barbecue, right over a medium flame. In only a couple of minutes they will soften and begin to scorch. Allow this to happen on all sides, and then serve them hot with some balsamic vinegar. The cooking brings out an incredibly sweet flavor and knocks back all that bitterness of the raw product.  You also can chop into salad or use as wrappers for canapes

Matures in 85 days.    10 gram packet, approximately 6,000 seeds.

 

 

 

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