Dandelion recipes: Italian-style greens.
Simple greens, Italian-style.
My favorite way to eat dandelions.
Here’s how to do it:
Pick dandelion greens. Stick to plants that are not blooming if you don’t want them to be too bitter. Sturdy kitchen scissors are great for picking greens. (You can also use garden or farm-grown dandelion greens—they’ll be bigger and maybe a bit less bitter, but you won’t have the fun of snipping your lawn with scissors!)
Wash dandelion greens. Soak them in a bowl of water, fish them out, and repeat with clean water until you don’t find any dirt on the bottom of the bowl.
Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a skillet. You could also use lard or schmaltz. Goose fat is especially good.
Saute the greens in the oil. Cook them until they’re as soft as you like. You may want to put a lid on the pan and steam them for a bit if they’re tough.
Salt the greens to taste. Use good salt if you have it—I like unrefined sea salt.
Chop a bunch of garlic. How much depends on how much you like garlic.
Stir the garlic into the greens. I like to leave it basically raw, but you can keep cooking it for a minute or two if you like.
Serve it forth, as they say in the old cookbooks.
dexie said,
May 29, 2007 @ 8:17 am
oh wow. never heard of this ever, till now. thank you for such a great idea.
*via carnival
andy said,
June 1, 2007 @ 10:56 pm
I love dandelion greens cooked like this tossed with pasta with a little chopped walnuts and parmasean. Thanks for all the inspiring dandelion recipes!
Heidi (Earthkitten) said,
June 3, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
YUM YUM YUMMMMY! Thanks for the pic too…..makes it really look mouth-watering…
Chef Tom said,
June 4, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
I’ve never had dandelion greens before. I”ll have to try this
Mike Sirianno said,
July 15, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
My Italian greandmother had an Italian name for dandelion greens. Does anyone know what that might be because I know it but can’t spell it.
crabappleherbs said,
July 16, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Was it a name for the dandelion plant or for the cooked dish? Some Italian names for dandelion are: Tarassaco, Soffione, Pisciacane, and of course Dente de Leone. Do any of those ring a bell?
Rachel said,
September 26, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
It’s funny that you ask for the Italian name for dandelion greens because that is how I found this site. I was searching for the English name for “safreglia” which is a weed/green that grows near where I live and we cook it kind of like the above recipe for the dandelion greens. I do not think safreglia’s are dandelion greens though, but could that be the name you are thinking of? My spelling is most likely incorrect also.
crabappleherbs said,
September 28, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
What do the safreglia look like? Are they something in the chicory family?
Barbara Young said,
January 7, 2008 @ 6:49 am
My Italian family has always called it “Chicoria” (sp?) which I assumed to be chicory, but I saw them gather it up and it was dandelion greens-perhaps they use the term as a generic “greens” in my family..
marianne lent said,
January 10, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Does anyone know any recipe for radici (sp?). My grandma used to make it with pork chops. I think it was dandelion greens.
crabappleherbs said,
January 11, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Barbara — chicory and dandelion greens are often used interchangeably.
Marianne — “radici” means “roots.” Maybe you mean “radicchio”? Radicchio is a kind of chicory, so it wouldn’t be surprising if your grandmother substituted dandelion greens. (Italian immigrants were very resourceful with the local wild foods — dandelions, chicory, all sorts of greens… and burdock stems were used as cardoons. I know an Italian-American family in which burdock is called “gardooni” — and they’ve never even heard of “cardoons”!)
Sa l West (Saleo) said,
March 18, 2008 @ 11:08 am
Dandelion greens with Green Onions and water creeses sauted in bacon grease is great.
crabappleherbs said,
March 19, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
Oh, yum!
Diana said,
May 14, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
My grandmother and father called it (sounds like) chee-kau-dee-ah. I don’t know how it is spelled. I just ate some in Italy too. It was tasty! Brought me back many years when my father used to make it. He also used to cook the roots to I think.
crabappleherbs said,
May 15, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
Hi Diana. I think you’re pronouncing “cicoria” — technically Italian for chicory, but chicory and dandelion leaves are used interchangeably, and you often hear Italian-Americans calling dandelion cicoria (pronounced chee KO ree ah, with a trilled r).
Jessie Dobbs said,
August 27, 2008 @ 11:30 am
“Catalogna Frastagliata Italian Dandelion Greens” – this is the term that I had get in order to acquire the seeds for the european plant which american dandelions look like. Most italians who looked for that taste found out quickly that in order to replicate the flavor of the above noted plant – one had to trim american dandelions when they were very young – and on the full moon (way before the head ever had a chance to turn white). This is an interesting addition to my collection of plants we call “greens”.
Jessie Dobbs said,
August 27, 2008 @ 11:38 am
The other name to search for is Cichorium intybus. It is a chicory plant which is related to the dandelion family.
Davis Blanchard Wind Chimes said,
March 2, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
I like the French Dandelions best, but have not been able to locate the seed I once had in Eugene OR. That particular seed grew some enormous fleshy leaves, and the plants were almost bushy. They bloomed yellow flowers, so were not the Italian blue flowering type of chicory.
mike nardone said,
May 3, 2009 @ 7:48 am
just planted a few rows of italian dandelion.cant wait for the crop,they are good cooked in olive oil and garlic,or picked fresh and eaten raw in a salad. the experts say this green is good for the kidneys
Mario Restive said,
July 18, 2009 @ 9:51 am
I have been cultivating Wild Burdock for a few years now and working on developing some new food products with it. Currently I have a nice pizza topping made from Burdock stems of young plants, cut into small pieces and sautéed. Friends and family seem to love it, sort of a Wild Greens Pizza. I have a few recipes if anyone is interested.
My family has enjoyed eating the Burdock stems for years, in more of an omelet form that is fried in olive oil, we called it Cardoon.
frank granieri said,
August 2, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
My grandmother used to take me as a young boy and go to a field adjacent to our home; we would pick approx. 10 shopping bags of Cicoria (we have always pronounced it as if it were spelled) chicaught’eeuh. Everyone ate cicorie at the time. the best ones to eat in a salad are those that you pick wild just after they come out of the ground. They are small and you need a lot of them but with onions, a light sprinkling of olive oil, regular white wine vinegar, salt and pepper made into a salad eaten along with some hard cheese, hard crusty bread and a glass of red wine…..as we say in New Jersey……forget about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, this salad goes especially well with Italian sausage that you could boil first to get rid of some fat, then saute for a short time in olive oil and garlic. After you have eaten this spectacular salad peel then slice an apple, add some salted almonds and sliced peaches then enjoy together with a little Grappa…………and all is well with the world.
Brandon Chavannes said,
September 30, 2009 @ 10:57 am
I believe you might be thinking of puntarelle (sp?) Its not actually the exact same green, but they are very close and are usually substituted with each other. They also look very similar.
Brandon Chavannes said,
September 30, 2009 @ 11:07 am
Here is also a great recipe. Take a large rondo style pan and cover the bottom with a high temperature oil. Peanut or Extra virgin olive oil are my favorite. Throw in 3 or 4 big chunks of pancetta or bacon if you can’t find it. cook until the pancetta is brown on all sides then add the puntarelle. season liberally with a good salt. Maldon or Sea Salt is fine. add 2 pinches of crushed red pepper. I strongly recommend grinding the crushed red pepper in a coffee grinder before adding it as it will release more oils and have a finer texture. Do the same with some toasted cumin. Once the puntarelle has cooked down add the juice from a whole lemon and 2 tablespoons of butter. Once the greens have soaked up most of the liquid in the pan season again with salt and fresh cracked pepper. serve in a dish and garnish with creme friache if desired