Green and red radicchio, unsmoked pork belly, and vinegar are the few ingredients you’ll need to make the radicchio salad and bruciatini recipe, one of the many flavor-rich dishes of Romagna’s cucina povera.

Radicchio salad and Bruciatini

The recipe is from Romagna, although along the Via Emilia, there is an Aemilian version from Modena made with radicchio, onion, and wine vinegar.

It is one of my father’s favorite dishes, and my grandmother used to prepare it just for him, especially some evenings when he came home late. It was just what he needed to keep him light and correct the tiredness of the long day with a dish he knew he would enjoy.

When I was a child, I didn’t eat radicchio salad with bruciatini. The radicchio was so bitter that it stung in the throat, and the pungent smell of vinegar was too strong.

It is a dish I rediscovered a few years later in an osteria.
Not just any osteria but a special place where I felt at home.

The Tre Scalini tavern in Imola, where I was born and raised, was named after the three steps to climb to enter. I remember the late autumn evenings when, still outside the place, I could smell the sour smell of vinegar in the air. An unmistakable sign that Gianfranco, the owner, had made radicchio salad and bruciatini.

I spent so many evenings dining at a table crowded with friends that tasted like vinegar and family, and often in the company of Gianfranco himself as his son Aldo, behind the counter, greeted patrons.

I remember certain evenings of thick fog, as only happens in the Po Valley, the streets of Imola’s historic center lit up but deserted, the silence broken only by my footsteps under the portico, and then that robust and familiar smell interrupted my lonely walk. On those wolfish evenings, only us were in the diner, refreshed by the sour scent of vinegar bruciatini.

Those of Tre Scalini in Imola were perhaps the best bruciatini in Romagna.
Strong, sour, rich with radicchio and diced pancetta.

Scents that become flavors

Before the flavor comes the overpowering smell of wine vinegar, which is used generously during the preparation of this dish. A penetrating aroma enters your nose and then trickles down your throat.

You still feel your palate tingle as the warm and fragrant piadina gently tries to remedy the vinegar’s somewhat rough behavior. Meanwhile, the toasted crispy bacon was inviting and almost hidden among the green and red leaves of the radicchio.

And despite the sourness of vinegar and radicchio, the dish has its own old-fashioned grace founded on perfect balance. The sweetness of the pancetta mitigates the bitterness of the other ingredients.

Then, there is the crisp freshness of the vegetables, which makes the dish lively.

If you like, you can mitigate the vinegar’s sourness by using apple or even balsamic vinegar from Modena (if the occasion is a bit important). Bread can take the place of piadina romagnola.

There are no rules; the important thing is that there is no lack of appetite.
You can serve radicchio salad and bruciatini as an appetizer, main course, or main dish.

Buona cucina, Monica

Keep in Touch

To receive unpublished recipes, tips, and food stories, sign up for the Tortellini&CO newsletter.
Follow me on Instagram.

Print Pin it!

Non ancora votata