Baked chicory

[Ishbel]

Baked Chicory - Italian style

Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan, add 4-6 heads white or red chicory (or a mixture of both) and stir. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice and 4 tbsp boiling water, season and cover. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Place in an ovenproof dish and scatter with a mixture of breadcrumbs made from ciabatta bread, chopped fresh parsley and garlic, a few pine kernels, sultanas and capers. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 15 minutes until the crumbs are crisp and golden.

 

[jkath]

That sounds like nothing I've ever made, but it sounds wonderful!
(are the "pine kernels" the same thing the US calls "pine nuts"?)

 

[Ishbel]

I'm not sure, jKath..... I did just wonder whether what we in Europe call chicory is the same in the USA? What with us having courgettes (US/Italy - Zuchinni), and Aubergine (US eggplant) - I'm not confident about using terms and them meaning the same thing, both sides of the 'pond'!

 

[jkath]

I did some searching and here's what I found:

at first I thought you were kidding, as I'd only heard of chickory on an old coffee commercial from the 70's that bragged about their use of the best chickory around.

Then I read into it. In England, Belgium and a few neighboring countries, Chickory is widely used as a salad green, but in the US, it's only purpose is in the making of, or the substituting of coffee. How weird is that?

It did say that endive can be used as a substitute, or even curly endive.

Personally, if the chickory has a "bite" like coffee, I'd rather have that!

 

[Ishbel]

Chicory has a unique flavour... I use it mostly for salads, as your research suggested, but this baked dish is really GOOD!

Isn't it amazing that we are 2 nations divided by a common language?!!!!

 

[jkath]

but isn't it cool that the internet allows us to exchange such great recipes?!