Something new

 I've been doing way too much travel during this sojourn in Italy and not enough blogging. Now I'm just going to be tossing all kinds of miscellaneous stuff in here in an effort to work through my backlog.

Starting with a new-to-me vegetable I encountered in Fidenza's twice-weekly street market. It's sold only in the spring and is called barba di frate (monk's beard) but it's more widely known as agretti. 

I've seen it every spring but wasn't sure what it was or what to do with it. I mean, it looks weird and somewhat non-edible, doesn't it? Last year one vendor at the market told me it was "amaro," bitter, which sounded pretty unappealing. (I still remember the off-putting taste of that surprisingly bitter cheese I bought a few years ago.) But I was also guiltily aware that I haven't been doing much intrepid reporting lately, so I bought a bunch one Saturday and then started looking up recipes online.

There I learned that agretti is known as saltwort and has quite an interesting history. In Italy it's typically cooked by parboiling, then sauteeing with oil, garlic, and other flavorings, which is how a lot of vegetables are cooked here. I used a recipe that included anchovy paste and a little lemon juice.

The flavor reminded me of spinach, except more so, a strong but appealing, mineral-y taste. (Our daughter thought it was more celery than spinach.) The best thing about it is the texture, which stays firm through cooking and gives some of the same mouth-feel pleasure that pasta does. 

I combined the leftovers with a local variant of ziti, a little more oil, and lots of grated parmagiano-reggiano, and liked that version even better than agretti plain. I'm looking forward to enjoying it again when it reappears in the market next spring.