origin: Chioggia being the most familiar, round-headed
radicchio beloved, apparently, of Tony Blair, while Treviso
produces the elongated maroon and white striped bulbs
that have become increasingly popular, as well as their
extraordinary offspring, the hydroponically forced tardivo
with its tendrils arising from a single core. Castelfranco is
an elegant little town some forty kilometres inland from
Venice, famous not just for its beautiful salad but also as
Giorgione’s birthplace, master of the pittura senza disegno
(‘picture without drawing’).
As with all radicchios, you can cook Castelfranco.
Quartered and coloured in oil and butter, then stewed with
a pinch of sugar, a jigger of lemon juice and a glass of red
wine, it is an excellent accompaniment to steak or roast
lamb, but it seems a bit of a shame not to show its leaves in
all their raw splendour. The recipe below, I have to admit,
tastes just as good when made with an escarole or Batavia
lettuce, but would be just a little senza pittura.
58
CASTELFRANCO SALAD WITH PEARS
AND BLUE CHEESE
It is hardly correct to pair a Venetian salad with a French
cheese, but no blue cheese tastes quite like Roquefort in a
salad. If using a richer and creamier blue cheese it may be
necessary to up both the salt and the vinegar in the
dressing. Apples will serve in place of pears.
Cut the Castelfranco in half down through the root and cut
in half again. Cut away the root and stalk holding the
leaves together, then cut each segment in half again to
produce lots of bite-sized pieces. Wash in a large bowl of
very cold water, then spin-dry before tipping into a large
salad bowl.
Peel the pears and roll them in the lemon juice. Halve
the pears and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon, then
slice them not too thinly and return them to the lemon
juice. Cut the cheese as best you can and distribute over
the salad in the bowl.
Whisk the salt, pepper and vinegar together in a bowl
until the salt is dissolved, then whisk in the olive oil. Drain
the pears of their lemon juice and distribute on top of the
salad. Pour over the dressing and toss the salad at the
table. Taste the leaves: they may need more seasoning or
a bit more oil for lubrication.
Serves four to six.
1 large head of Castelfranco
radicchio
3 large ripe pears
juice of 1 lemon
150g (5½oz) Roquefort cheese
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon coarsely ground
black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons best-quality
olive oil
WINE: A little caution is required. Like most fruit, pears
can strip out the fruitiness of a wine, making reds seem
astringent. Blue cheese is hardly better news, and will kill
delicate, mineral styles of white if they lack acidity. Staying
within the terroir, I suggest a richer style of Friuli white,
either a Friulano or a good ‘gris’ style of Pinot Grigio.
60
A Nice Skill
Griddled Mackerel with Rhubarb
Filleting a mackerel is a nice skill: ‘nice’ in the sense of
requiring precision, deftness and care, but also implying
a certain pleasure in the task. A sharp knife is required,
and two quick cuts behind the gills start the procedure.
With the fish on a board, you then need to make two long,
parallel cuts either side of the backbone, only as far as the
central vertebrae, on both sides. You then manoeuvre your
knife around each side of the backbone in turn, proceeding
to cut all the way through past the stomach cavity, thus
separating each fillet entirely from the bone. Thereafter
the knife should be slid under the ribcage, which must be
cut away before facing the greatest challenge, the removal
of the line of tiny pin bones that protrude at right angles
from the backbone down into the middle of the fillet.
As with other round fish such as salmon, sea bass or
red mullet, the traditional method is to pull out these pin
bones with tweezers, making sure you pull away at an
angle so as not to tear the fillet. With mackerel, the flesh
is quite soft and it is likely to pull away in great clods
along with the bones. The modern method is to cut a fine,
V-shaped channel down either side of the pin bones that
meets just below the skin and to simply lift the line of
bones out in one neat stroke. With this achieved, you then
have before you a mackerel fillet. A very good fishmonger
will be able to perform this task for you, but do not expect
the nice but nervous attendant at your local supermarket
to be able to do anything of the sort.
In the past, it was more usual to cook mackerel on the
bone, but filleting this fish transforms it. If you choose, you
do not have to cook the fillet at all – cut in thin strips at
an angle down towards the skin, it is excellent served raw
with wasabi and soy sauce – but the cooking process is
also simple. Fried with the skin-side down in a pan, it
becomes very crisp, and with the flesh only just cooked
the result is much more succulent than if the fish is on the
bone. It is a paradox that oily fish, such as tuna, salmon
and mackerel, become horribly dry when overcooked.
What with its sustainability, abundance in our local
waters and