Radicchio

Radicchio is a tight-headed leafy chicory with burgundy-purple leaves and white ribs. Its crisp texture and winey bitterness mellow with grilling, roasting, or sauteing, and it is commonly shredded into salads, charred as wedges, or folded into risotto or pasta; sold as round Chioggia heads or elongated Treviso.\n\nBred in northern Italy, especially the Veneto, radicchio diversified into Chioggia, Treviso, and Castelfranco types and spread through Mediterranean cooking before reaching North America. It is a cool-season crop often field-grown in fall, with some post-harvest forcing or blanching used to develop color and uniformity.