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# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
field, but obtaining the seedlings requires time and
knowledge: in fact, the seedlings are the offspring
of plants grown two years
before.
In this case as well, the
selection process is meticulous and traditional:
the best plants are placed
in pots and carried to the
field in late spring to create beautiful blue flowers,
protected by anti-insect
cloth, and then the precious selected seeds are
collected.
The Radicchio Rosso di
Treviso IGP will remain in
the field for about four
months. The fields appear as expanses of green
and, as long as they remain in the soil, the plants are practically inedible
because they are so bitter
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fact, this precious winter
vegetable, the child of the
Harvesting and bleaching autumn mists of the Veneonly begins in November to countryside, is harveafter the soil has “suffe- sted still partly green.
red” at least two frosts, as
required by the Regula- Brought to the processor,
tions. In fact, the precious it leaves the soil to be bachicory must be wrapped thed in pure spring water.
by frost at least twice in The plants are taken from
order to stop the plant's the furrow and gathered
growth process. In the in bunches of about 30
field, the plant's leaves are heads of radicchio with
droopy and burned by the their root and root ball.
frost. It is spring water, and
the farmers' expert hands The bunches are put in
that, after a few weeks, concrete tanks with runallow them to express all ning water and a constant
their crispness and unmi- temperature of not less
than 10-12 °C, which must
stakable taste.
never wet the leaves. They
Radicchio Rosso di Trevi- are then covered with a
so IGP is the only chicory layer of 8-10 cm of straw,
that does not come to the
table directly from the
field; it needs to be left in
the ground and soaked in
water for several weeks. In
and fibrous.