Sherry-braised radicchio recipe
Radicchio Trevisano is a long, tear-shaped purple radicchio and holds up particularly well to being cooked in a sticky, grown-up fortified wine and butter sauce. Those glorious burgundy leaves soften in texture, mellow in flavour and yield some of their own juices while soaking up the Pedro Ximenez, or PX (an intense sweet, dark sherry – you could use a sweet oloroso or Madeira to similar, though not quite as thrilling, effect).
If you can’t find Trevisano, curly radicchio Tardivo works really well. The more fragile red radicchio di Verona, Chioggia, or even red chicory could be used too, but cook them for slightly less time.
Recipe from On The Side by Ed Smith (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20).
Ingredients
- 2 (about 500g/18oz) radicchio Trevisano
- 70 ml Pedro Ximenez sherry
- 50 g butter
- 2 pinches salt and freshly ground black pepper
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Side dish
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 15 mins
- Cooking Time: 30 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 200˚C/390˚F/gas mark 6.
- Separate the radicchio leaves by cutting off the base to loosen them. Wash them in cold water and drain briefly, leaving a little water clinging to the leaves.
- Put them in a small roasting tin, making sure they’re no more than 2 or 3 leaves deep.
- Pour the Pedro Ximenez and 50ml (1.8fl oz) water over the top, mixing to ensure all the leaves are coated. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt and a grind or two of black pepper, then dot the butter on top of the leaves.
- Make a cartouche by wetting a piece of greaseproof paper a touch bigger than the roasting tin, scrunching it up, then unravelling it, placing it over the leaves and tucking it in around the edge.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, stirring the leaves and replacing the cartouche every 10 minutes, to make sure none of the leaves dry out. The leaves will brown and soften and start giving off a coffee smell.
- When that’s happened, remove them from the oven and transfer to a serving dish.
- Pour the cooking juices over the top and let the leaves absorb their bath for 5 minutes before serving. Make sure everyone takes both leaves and sauce when helping themselves.
This recipe from On The Side by Ed Smith (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20). Photography by Joe Woodhouse.
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