This is a brilliant winter salad that you still just about sow direct into soil now outdoors here in central-ish London if it’s a sheltered spot, I reckon. The soil is still beautifully warm. I sowed these about two weeks before this picture was taken and they’ve been in the ground for ten days, doubling  in size.

If your growing space is not so central or sheltered, sow in modules, still outside, and prick out in two or three weeks. Should we get the rumoured cold snap (well, it’s definitely going to get colder) you might want to peg out a cut open compost bag over the soil to preserve some soil warmth and cover the patch with a cloche or little fleece tunnel.  This is both in anticipation of planting out and protecting once planted out.

Last year I trialled three red radicchio varieties and Thompson and Morgan’s ‘Rosso di Treviso’ was definitely the best in terms of appearance, taste and weather hardiness. So I’ve got about 20 plants on the go, with more seedlings on the way. The intense red comes as the plants grow and then respond to the cold. I space them only about 15cm apart so I can harvest alternate ones for salad leaves, leaving the others to get a bit more hearty for bakes. This variety, though, doesn’t make a tight ball, as ‘Palla Rossa’ does.

I love the Italian bitter leaves, which cut olive oil and rich cheeses so well. They stimulate appetite and liver function.  The classic companion is gorgonzola, in a salad with apples and walnuts, or in a bake with a bread crumb topping, or wilted together with pasta. Many can’t take the bitterness – pigeons and other pests included: bonus!