A winter salad is different to a spring or summer salad: when those delicate, tender leaves are no longer in season what you must have is crunch and character, and I like the bitterness that you get from leaves and vegetables like chicory and artichokes; it is something I have come to enjoy even more as I have got older. We seem to have pulled away from bitterness in our foods, but apart from the extra edge of flavour that it adds, bitter is good for the digestion and helps your liver to function properly.
The green sauce is similar to a classic salsa verde but made without egg or bread, and with some spinach put in with the herbs, and finally there is a little Sicilian soul from the addition of the lemon and chilli compote, which is a bit like a jam with attitude.
It is easy to buy anchovy fillets already marinated in vinegar and oil for this recipe, but try to choose ones in a quite gentle marinade, as some can be too harsh and vinegary. At Locanda we marinate our own fresh anchovies, and it is easy to do if you can find the fresh fish.
To marinate your own anchovies
You will need around 1kg. Take off the heads, then run your thumbnail along the backbone to remove the fillets and wash them well under running water to remove any traces of blood, which will make the anchovies taste bitter.
Make the marinade by putting 300ml of white wine vinegar and 50g of sea salt into a pan with 500ml of water. Bring to the boil, stirring until the salt has dissolved, then take from the heat and leave to cool down. Put the anchovy fillets into the marinade and leave them in the fridge for 4 hours, moving them around from time to time to make sure they are all completely covered, then lift out and drain in a colander. Put the anchovies into a bowl with 2 chopped cloves of garlic, around 20 large fresh parsley leaves and 10 black peppercorns, then pour in enough extra virgin olive oil to cover. Make sure the anchovies are completely submerged. Once under the oil, the anchovies will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Serves 6
sea salt
potatoes 4 large, skin on, washed
Giorgio’s dressing 200ml (see here)
puntarelle 1 small head
radicchio di Treviso 1
radicchio di Castelfranco 1
radicchio tardivo 1
marinated anchovy fillets about 500g (or about 10 per person)
For the lemon compote:
lemons 10
caster sugar 200g
mild red chilli ½
For the green sauce:
spinach leaves 80g
salted anchovies 6
garlic 1 clove, peeled
fresh flat-leaf parsley 100g
white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon
extra virgin olive oil 200ml
Anchovy and chicory salad with lemon compote (picture here)
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
2 Scatter a little sea salt over a baking tray, put the potatoes on top and bake in the preheated oven for at least 40 minutes, depending on their size. Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle, peel and cut into slices about 1cm thick. Put into a bowl, season and toss with half the dressing.
3 Meanwhile, take off the spiky outer leaves of the puntarelle. (Don’t throw them away, as you can blanch them and sauté them in olive oil, with a little garlic and chilli, as an accompaniment to meat or fish, or use them in the salad here.) Now you will see at the base of the puntarelle the fat, hollow, spear-like stems that are white at the bottom, turning green, and have tendrils growing out from them. Cut these free, then, with a small knife, make vertical cuts all around the base of the stems, put them into a colander and drain under cold running water for 5 minutes, to remove some of the bitterness. Then transfer them to a bowl of iced water for about an hour and you will see that the cuts in the stems will allow them to twist and curl like little flowers in the icy cold.
4 To make the lemon compote, remove the peel from the lemons using a sharp knife, and discard it. Then separate into segments, removing the skin, and put into a pan. Squeeze the rest of each lemon over the top, so that any additional juice goes into the pan. Add the sugar and chilli to the pan, slowly bring to a simmer and cook gently for 10 minutes until you have a pale syrup. Take off the heat, put the contents of the pan into a blender and blend until smooth, then keep to one side.
5 You can make the green sauce using either a pestle and mortar or a blender. First, blanch the spinach very briefly in boiling salted water – just lower it in and then lift it out again – then drain it in a colander under cold running water, to stop it from cooking any further and keep it looking fresh and green.
6 Rinse the salt from the 6 salted anchovies and dry them. Run your thumb gently along the backbone of each one, which will allow you to easily peel it out and separate the fish into fillets, then just roughly chop them.
7 If using a pestle and mortar, crush the garlic first, then add the anchovies and continue to crush. Add the parsley leaves and keep on working the ingredients into a paste. Add the spinach and work it in. Finally, mix in the vinegar and oil. You should finish up with a smooth bright green paste. If using a blender, you can put all the ingredients in together and blend as quickly as possible, to a smooth paste.
8 Cut the base from the heads of radicchio to release the leaves and wash them under running water. Pat dry and put into a bowl. Drain the puntarelle ‘flowers’ from their iced water and pat them dry too, then add them to the bowl and toss with the rest of the dressing.
9 To assemble the salad, spread the green sauce over the base of a large serving dish and arrange the potato slices on top. Drain the marinated anchovies, then intersperse them with the dressed leaves and puntarelle ‘flowers’. Dot teaspoonfuls of lemon compote onto some of the leaves and serve.
Courgettes
x 4
My grandad used to grow courgettes in the garden and I remember when I was small thinking, ‘These plants take up such a massive space, and all you get is about three courgettes,’ so the first time I saw a whole boxful I thought it must take miles and miles of garden to grow them. I believe that to produce a good courgette the plant must have its roots in the ground, and preferably be grown organically, which seems to make a massive difference to the taste and smell, rather than using the hydroponic culture, which I feel produces a more watery courgette. I visited an amazing farm in the desert in Dubai, where an incredible woman, Elena Kinane, was growing organic courgettes, as well as around 120 different heirloom varieties of fruit, vegetables and herbs, in a tiny, shadowy area of sand in a valley between some massive dunes. One of the crops she grew was alfalfa, which went to feed local racing camels, then the manure from the animals was sent back to fertilise the sand. It was such an extraordinary thing to suddenly come across this green oasis in such a harsh environment. She had an irrigation system, and glasshouses, more to keep the produce cool than hot, and every so often an amazing storm of coldish wet air would be created inside. The courgettes were her obsession, and the whole operation was so inspirational, it gave me hope that there are always people with the will and the ingenuity to produce food and survive in the harshest of environments.
There is a certain sweetness and particularity of flavour about courgettes that kids seem to like, in the same way as peas. We always had them at home for Margherita because although she was allergic to so many green