Penne con radicchio tardivo
Serve hot
Servings: 2
Preparation: 10 min.
Cooking: 20 min.
Difficulty: 
Ingredients

180 gr (6.4 ounces) Penne or other cylinder pasta

200 gr (7 ounces) Radicchio tardivo

30 gr (1 ounce) Onion

30 gr (1 ounce) Pancetta (or bacon)

80 gr (2.8 ounces) ricotta cheese (or stracchino/crescenza)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

A pinch of salt / a handful sea salt for the pasta

method

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1 - Cut the pancetta (or bacon) into small dices, chop the onion and put both of them in a large non-stick pan with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

2 - Remove the root base of the radicchio and cut it into 2 cm (0,8 inches) slices, so as to obtain small pieces from the thin leaves. Rinse them carefully.

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3 - Put the pan over medium heat, taking care to stir onion and pancetta with oil.

4 - After a couple of minutes, when onion and pancetta are translucent, stir in radicchio.

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5 - Add a pinch of salt, cover the pan and cook about 10 minutes.

6 - Meanwhile set a pot with water to boil, add a handful of coarse sea salt, wait until water boils again and add pasta.

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7 - While pasta is cooking, put ricotta in a bowl and pour 2 tbsps of boiling water.

8 - Cream ricotta with water.

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9 - When pasta is done, drain it in a colander.

10 - Stir the pasta in the pan with radicchio, add the ricotta and toss.

Useful Suggestions

It’s a very easy and quick recipe, if you like the bitter taste of radicchio, a very versatile type of salad, counterbalanced with the sweet taste of pancetta and ricotta (or stracchino). If you are going to use stracchino/crescenza, you won’t need to cream it, just add the cheese to the pasta and radicchio and toss.

Radicchio rosso

Tasty and colourful, radicchio is the winter salad par excellence, and it’s very versatile: raw or stewed, as side dish, or as part of dishes like risotto, sauces, pasta or baked crespelle.