Italian · Rome · salad

Puntarelle alla Romana con Salsa di Alici

Puntarelle alla Romana con Salsa di Alici reads umami 6.5, salinity 6.2 and funk & ferment 5.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Rome salad, about 2 hr. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.5 · Salinity 6.2 · Funk & Ferment 5.1 · Richness 4.4 · Marine & Briny 4.3 · Sourness 4.2 · Allium 4.0 · Bitterness 1.9 · Sweetness 1.8 · Citrus 1.8 · Fruity 1.8 · Warm Spice 1.6 · Herbaceous 1.6 · Earthy 0.7 · Heat 0.6 · Floral 0.6 · Nutty 0.5

What's in it (8)

Time & effort: about 2 hr (30 min active) · effort: easy

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 5.2 kcal, 0.5 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 0.2 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (5 steps)

  1. Break the puntarelle apart and keep only the pale hollow shoots from the centre; the dark outer leaves are for cooking, not for this. Split each shoot lengthways into strips 3 mm wide, using a knife or the wire cutter Roman markets sell for exactly this job.
  2. Drop the strips into the ice water and leave 1 to 2 hours. They will curl into tight ringlets and lose about half their bitterness. This is the whole technique of the dish; skip it and you have a bowl of bitter straw.
  3. Meanwhile pound the garlic to a paste in a mortar with the salt, then work in the anchovies a couple at a time until you have a smooth brown cream, about 3 minutes of grinding.
  4. Add the vinegar to the mortar and stir, then dribble in the olive oil while working the pestle in circles until the dressing thickens slightly and turns opaque. Grind in the pepper. Taste: it should be aggressive on its own, because the chicory will blunt it.
  5. Drain the puntarelle and spin or shake them thoroughly dry; water left on the ringlets will slide the dressing straight off. Toss with the anchovy dressing 5 minutes before serving so the strips soften just slightly at the edges but stay crisp. Serve as a winter starter with bread to wipe the bowl.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.