grilled radicchio treviso and zucchini ribbon salad
August 23, 2013 § 33 Comments
We are seeing signs of Fall here in Seattle and here are two wonderful “late” summer vegetable recipes for you to try. On my last visit to the farmer’s market I picked up a nice large head of Radicchio Treviso and an even larger sized Italian Striped Zucchini.
Radicchio Treviso is a leaf chicory. It is grown as a leaf vegetable and has long delicate green and magenta leaves, creamy white veins and a crinkled texture. The flavor is bitter which mellows a bit when grilled, braised or baked.
I n g r e d i e n t s
- 1 head of Radicchio Treviso
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Sea salt
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- small wedge of grana padano or parmesan cheese, shredded
Preheat the grill or grill pan. Cut radicchio in half lengthwise and rub or brush both entire halves with oil. Set radicchio cut-side down on the grill. Cook until edges are well browned, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with salt, turn and cook until radicchio is nicely browned and wilted, about 4 more minutes.
Alyssa and Carla’s Fresh Zucchini Pasta
Fresh Zucchini “Pasta”
serves one as a light lunch or two as a side dish
Dressing:
1 tablespoon really good extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
Pinch of salt
a few cracks of freshly ground pepper
1 medium zucchini
8 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
Combine all of the dressing ingredients into a jar, such as a mason jar, and shake to combine thoroughly. Adjust to taste.
Julienne the zucchini. I used this mandoline, which I adore (and use for many different dishes). You can try to do it by hand, but a mandoline creates perfect strands. I used the mandoline on each side of the zucchini until I got near the center, where the seeds made the strands too weak and they started to fall apart.
Toss the zucchini strands with the dressing. Plate the zucchini. Scatter the tomatoes, pine nuts and basil over the zucchini. Garnish with a sprinkle of parmesan.
Lovely photos. Especially the first one.
Thank you Rosemary. :)
Looks Absolutely amazing! Totally loving the first picture :)
Two lovely recipes!
Technically, radicchio is not a lettuce, but a chicory, which explains its slightly bitter taste. It is closer to endive than salad :). I LOVE it and have grilled it before, I love your use of balsamic vinegar, I am sure the combination with bitter chicory must taste amazing! I wonder when we are supposed to have it in Lille, probably not before the end of September – beginning of October… I’ll be making this when the time comes!
Thank you for the clarification! :) I changed the post. I do love it grilled too. And speaking of endive, I do enjoy it raw with hummus and whatnot. I do enjoy a bit of bitter though…
Oh… I live in the biggest endive-producing area in France :) ! Here, it is used in thousands of different ways (baked, gratineed, grilled, braised, raw…) but I have NEVER tried it with hummus (perhaps because I don’t live in “hummus country”). Another something to try out in the future!
Wonderful Italian recipes.
Very beautiful. Nice flavor combos here.
Beautiful photos, and what a wonderful recipe… I don’t like the idea of summer being over, but… such is life, right?
Yes. And up here in the Pacific Northwest our summers are very short lived. Although I do love autumn. The food, the clothes, the colors, pumpkin pie…
what a fun dish! I had a friend try zuke pasta, but she was disappointed as she said it was bland. Thinking your recipe would take care of that :-) Will be trying as there are so many zucchini floating around. p.s. what is “striped zucchini”?
This was not bland at all. Lots of garlic! Striped zucchini is the same as solid green, it just has two different hues of green stripes. I know…I didn’t even think of posting it until we ate it! And of course I didn’t take a photograph of the zucchini before I shaved it. Regular green zuke’s will be perfect. :)
Yum! This looks so great!
I have wanted to try grilled radicchio and this makes me want to try it even more! And the zucchini pasta, oh my that looks wonderful. I don’t want to say goodbye to summer, so I’m holding on as long as possible and these two dishes might just help with that :) Have a great weekend!
I know…summer is closing in on us here. It was so cool in Seattle today. This was the first time I made the zucchini pasta and wow…it was so good!
This looks so beautiful, especially the fresh zucchini pasta. Can’t wait ’til we hit Spring and I can serve up dishes like this, instead of stews and soups! I absolutely love market-to-plate meals. It’s 7.30am here and I’m quite literally heading to our local farmer’s market as we speak! It’s a freezing morning though so I’m sneaking in a bit of blog-reading before I go… oh, and one more coffee…
Can’t imagine “freezing” right now! We are fast approaching Autumn though….it’s in the air. Thank you Saskia, I love to read your comments. :)
Like you I’ve seen countless recipes for courgette pasta. But I just can’t get my head around the idea of raw courgette, regardless of how much I like them cooked! Can’t even nibble on one of them whilst preparing them :)
:) WellI I must say I do like them raw. And I really enjoyed them tossed with garlic and olive oil. Preparing them so thinly sliced created such a nice crunchy texture. Funny how you can not even “nibble” on one in it’s raw state!
Thank you for the link! And I’m so happy that you found my recipe worth re-blogging :) Lovely photo.
It really is something to “write home about”. I really want one of those mandolins! We’ll be having this many times. Thank you!
Very nice indeed and very inventive.
Thank you. :) You have some very inventive things happening in your kitchen with all those chili’s! Love it.
Looks delish! I’m bookmarking your zucchini pasta recipe for later!
Great! Hope you get a chance to make it. So fresh, and it is all raw vegetables! It’s lovely.
Both dishes look fantastic! I wish I had read this before my trip to the farmers market this morning. I do know of another one tomorrow, though. Grilled radicchio just might be on tomorrow night’s menu. Thanks! :)
Great! Are you a fan of radicchio? I like it very much, but I know it quite bitter for some. Hope you get to the “other” market!
Gorgeous!!! I I am a big fan of radicchio treviso and love zucchini pasta. Perfect light meal, full of flavor. LOVE IT!!!
Thank you! :) First time I actually had zucchini pasta and I love it too! I kept thinking I was eating pasta yet I wasn’t getting super full. Great “hot” evening meal. I love how all the ingredients are raw. Good cleansing meal!
Yummy recipes, and very nice food photography! Excellent! :-)
The grilled radicchio treviso looks and sounds wonderful. I’ll be adding this to my lengthy must-try list! And I absolutely love the idea of using zucchini as pasta. Brilliant. (As always….)
Beautiful dishes! And photos as well…
I don’t have a mandolin– your’e encouraging me to go shopping. This look so fresh and delicious.