Grilled Radicchio and Corn Salad with Buttermilk Cream Sauce

Last year, for my birthday, my wife Meg gave me this cookbook called Piatti - Plates and Platters for Sharing Inspired by Italy. She made four dishes from this cookbook for my birthday dinner that year, including Grilled Radicchio and Corn Salad.

Every dish was perfect. It is delicious to eat and beautiful to look at, as you can see from the photo above. When my daughter came home from college this year, we duplicated three recipes.

I want to try every recipe in this book. They are that good, but like many home cooks, once they find a recipe they like, they stick with it. I'll try other recipes from this book, including Stewed Calamari with Tomato, capers, and collard Greens or Roasted Romanesco and Cauliflower with Black Oil-Cured Olives.

Radicchio (pronounced rah-dee-key-oh)

For those unfamiliar with radicchio, it is not a leafy lettuce like I always thought, but rather a bitter vegetable. It is a chicory type and looks like a small red cabbage.

Radicchio is a beautiful red-purplish color with white veins, cousin to Belgian endive. If you're eating it raw in a salad, it will taste bitter. If you grill it or saute it, it will be less bitter. I have also read if you soak it in cold water for a couple of hours, the bitterness is less biting.

Filled with antioxidants, this beautiful vegetable looks good, tastes good, and is suitable for your health. For health-conscious people, radicchio is keto, paleo, and vegan-friendly.

Fennel

Fennel is another of my favorite vegetables and one of the most underrated greens. It has a unique "licorice" or "anise" flavor when eaten raw, but when cooked, the licorice flavor mellows out some.

It is part of the carrot family but is not a root vegetable that grows above ground. Another healthy vegetable with anti-inflammatory properties, it is a good source of fiber, folate, vitamin C, potassium, and vitamin B-6.

You can read about fennel in my article All About Fennel and How to Cook with It.

Other Recipes from Piatti

Grilled Rack of Lamb Lollipops Roman Style

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe

Grilled Radicchio and Corn Salad

A great side dish for all of your favorite meals

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: radicchio, salad

Servings: 6 people

Equipment

Grill

Ingredients

2 heads radicchio
5 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin, divided
2 ears fresh corn on the cob
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
½ clove garlic minced
¼ teaspoon honey
salt and pepper to taste
½ bulb fresh fennel thinly sliced, save some fronds for garnishing
chives finely chopped for garninshing

Instructions

Prep all the ingredients including cutting each head of radicchio into six wedges.
Husk the corn on the cob and remove all the fine silk threads.
In a bowl large enough to hold all the radicchio wedges, combine the wedges with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and gently stir to coat the radicchio.
Preheat the grill to medium heat.
When the grill is ready, add the radicchio wedges and corn. Carefully turn the radicchio wedges and corn every couple of minutes until the radicchio is charred and the corn lightly charred. Depending on your grill, this should take about 8 minutes but keep your eye on it.
Remove the radicchio and corn from the grill and remove the kernels from the corn cobs using a paring knife or corn cutter.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the lemion juice, lime juice and yogurt. Slowly whisk in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, honey and some salt and pepper.
Add half the corn and half the fennel to the bowl and carefully toss to coat.
Add the radicchio wedges to the dressing and turn each wedge until coated.

To Serve

Transfer the radicchio wedges and dressed vegetables to a large serving platter. Top with the extra fennel and corn. Spoon the remaining dressing on top.
Here's where you can garnish the dish with the reserved fennel fronds and chives. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.