RADICCHIO

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) A type of chicory with reddish-purple white-veined leaves, used as a salad vegetable and as a decorative garnish. Etymology: A direct borrowing from Italian radicchio 'chicory'; this variety of chicory originally comes from Italy. History and Usage: The move towards a greater variety of fresh raw vegetables in British and American cooking was one of the beneficial results of the fashion for nouvelle cuisine (see nouvelle) in the late seventies and early eighties. Radicchio satisfied the desire of the health-conscious for more interesting salad vegetables as well as offering colour to those more concerned with the aesthetic quality and presentation of the food; it therefore became a regular feature of restaurant fare and food-market stock by about the middle of the decade. Since Italian spelling conventions are not completely self-explanatory to English speakers, some try to pronounce the word, using an English -ch- sound for the last consonant. The big public market specializes in...sophisticated imports from rice to radicchio. St Louis Post-Dispatch 28 May 1986, section D, p. 1 Superb spring rolls filled with radicchio, mozzarella and salsa. Vogue Sept. 1990, p. 192