Friulian winter salad
You can easily misremember dishes. I ate this years ago and remembered it as containing roasted root vegetables, perhaps to contrast with the bitter leaves. When I checked the recipe there were no root vegetables, but I thought they would be good – they go well with fudgy chestnuts, provide another temperature and ‘earth’ the dish.
In northern Italy they use Treviso, with its long, slender crimson leaves – they look like quills – for salads, but any of the bitter Italian radicchio leaves (or even Belgian endive) can be used. You just want bitterness and colour.
At the restaurant where I ate this, they sometimes served it with a fried egg on top of each plateful, instead of the pomegranate seeds, which brings an entirely different vibe.
Overview
Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
20 mins
Serves
4
Ingredients
For the dressing
1½ tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
5-6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (taste as you add this)
For the salad
225g bitter leaves, such as endive or radicchio
8 slim carrots, of different colours (orange, cream and magenta) if possible
200g spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
125g cooked chestnuts
2 tbsp olive oil
150g speck or bacon lardons
30g walnuts, toasted
seeds from ½ pomegranate
Method
Step 1
Heat the oven to 210C/200C fan/gas mark 6½.
Step 2
To make the dressing, mix together 1½ tbsp white balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard and some seasoning in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the extra-virgin oil; decide whether you want 5 or 6 tbsp.
Step 3
Tear 225g bitter leaves (such as endive or radicchio) or pull them apart. Put these into a broad, shallow bowl so that everything is ready to go once each element is cooked.
Step 4
Don’t peel 8 slim carrots (of different colours – orange, cream and magenta – if possible), just wash them well. Trim them, then halve or quarter each one lengthways. Cook these in boiling water (you have to cook the crimson ones in a separate pan or every carrot will be crimson) until they’re beginning to soften (about 7 minutes).
Step 5
Break 200g spicy Italian sausage-meat (casings removed) up into little chunks and cut 125g cooked chestnuts in half. Some of them may break as you take them apart, in which case just leave them out – you don’t want crumbled chestnuts, just good chunky pieces.
Step 6
Drain the carrots. Put them in a single layer on a metal baking sheet with a lip. Drizzle on ½ tbsp olive oil, season and toss to coat. Roast for 5-7 minutes, or until tender but not completely soft and certainly not floppy.
Step 7
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and cook 150 speck or bacon lardons and the sausage over a medium-high heat until well coloured and cooked through. Toss them on to the leaves. Heat the remaining ½ tbsp of oil and quickly sauté the chestnuts until they are hot. Season.
Step 8
Dress the salad, retaining some of the dressing. Toss the chestnuts and 30g toasted walnuts on to the leaves and lay the roast carrots on top. Sprinkle seeds from ½ pomegranate over the top and then drizzle on the remaining dressing.
