Escarole & Frisée
Escarole and Frisée are sister loose heading chicories with a little bit of bitterness and quite thick leaves that can withstand lots of cooking.
These sister plants are Mediterranean eaten by the Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks (G.T Prance, 2005) They weren’t introduced into central Europe until the 16th C, where they’ve both become very popular. We love this French lentil soup with Escarole that uses green lentils ~ which are very tasty ~ and red wine.
Winter 2021
Our new arrival is frisée also known as curly endive. We like to enjoy the bitterness of frisée like a lettuce- dressed in heaps of vinegar. Frisée is also really good sauteed gently with garlic. We think frisée truly shines added raw into a sandwich with lots of mustard and red onion.
7 September 2021
Escarole is back in the box ~ Its fleshy, salty & a little bit bitter ~ super good raw, wilted, boiled, baked and stuffed.
In the spirit of spring ~ and summoning more of that hot weather ~ we tracked down a recipe for an escarole salad. This salad is lightly cooked to reduce the bitterness of the leaves and to tenderise them.
Escarole contains a prebiotic called inulin. The inulin in the Escarole, the fibre in the lentils & those polyphenols in the red wine ~ our gut microbiomes will be pretty happy. We know Italians adore Escarole. Grace translated a recipe for Scarola alla napoletana, or Italian sauteed escarole with raisins, pine nuts and black olives.
Scarola alla napoletana
Italian sautéed escarole with raisins, pine nuts and black olives.
This recipe is by Francesca Marcuccio, and was translated by Grace from Italian to English using google translate.
Ingredients: 1 kg escarole; 2 cloves Garlic; 2 anchovies in oil; 1 tablespoon pine nuts'; 1 tablespoon Salted capers; 100 g Black olives; Chilli pepper to taste; Salt; extra virgin olive oil.
Preparation: Toast the pine nuts in a non-stick pan. Rinse the capers to remove excess salt and chop them; Clean the escarole by removing the most damaged and leathery outer leaves, wash it well in plenty of water, rinsing often; In a low and wide pan (it must contain the escarole) pour a little oil , add the garlic cloves and the chilli pepper and let it brown for a few moments. Add the anchovy fillets , the pitted olives and the capers and leave to flavor for two or three minutes; Add the escarole leaves cut into two or three pieces, mix and leave to dry for 5-6 minutes, then put a lid on and leave to cook for about twenty minutes. Salt the vegetables a few minutes before the end of cooking. Enjoy your meal!
7 July 2021
We made this stuffed frisée recipe by Antonio Carluccio.
Instead of frisée we used escarole! In our version we omit both the anchovies, eggs and cheese~ and wow we love this recipe! Its very rich & salty, and the raisins just make it off the charts tasty.
23 June 2021
We blanch our escaroles using elastic bands for 10 days to get a very light, sweet centre. Escarole is salty and a little bit bitter, and Grace thinks it tastes a little bit like the ocean.
We made a version of this pizza di scaroloa, or escarole pie for the Autumn Picnic, and it was delicious! After attempting the dough, and failing...puff pastry was brought from the shops and it was honestly so delicious. We served the pie cold with a big frizee salad~ The pie can be served cold, warm & hot.
