Agretti

Agretti is a coastal succulent from the Mediterranean with a salty bright flavour, it is famous in Italy and is also loved in Spain. Enjoy it fresh in salads or on top of fish, or blanch it in hot water quickly to soften.

Folks I’m so excited that we have Agretti in the box this week. We’ve been trying to grow this green successfully for years now to no avail until now, so its a nice moment.

The central thickest stem can get a little fibres depending on the plant, we just remove that and then chop and cook the other stems up. The smallest leaves are the most tender and juicy, the stems are a little like asparagus.

You can eat Agretti raw in bright salads with other leafy greens or add it raw to spring time cheese or bean dips. Think: fresh chopped Agretti with Italian appetisers of Olives, herbs and cheeses, or as a fresh leafy base for cooked seafood.

To cook Agretti, you can boil it and shock it in ice water to keep it super green. Its also often steamed and combined with olive oil, lemon, vinegar, or a combination of each. Tonight we’re eating a bunch for dinner quickly blanched and mixed into Spaghetti.

This is our first season growing Agretti, it’s so nice to see other market gardeners locally & interstate having so much success growing it this season too. This seed is so legit, all thanks to James from Activevista for importing it from Italy. Agretti has a bad rep for terrible germ when the seed isn’t fresh, every other attempt we’ve made to germinate Agretti previously has failed miserably until now. We’ll be propagating more, and I’m finally confident enough to give Agretti’s notoriously difficult to grow cousin Oka Hijiki, a crack too!