We hope you have had, or are still enjoying, a restful festive break. If, like us, you are starting to crave something fresher after a few days of rich seasonal food, our friends at fellow co-operative UniVert in Provence have come up trumps this week.
We have a really lovely range of lettuces from them to see us into the New Year. Generous oakleaf lettuces in both red and green, crisp green batavias and the striking rougette lettuces.
Rougette is an heirloom French butterhead, prized for its sweet, tender leaves and soft buttery texture. Its colour fades from pale green at the heart to a deep mahogany red at the edges, making it as good-looking as it is delicious. It is best torn rather than chopped, which helps keep the leaves fresh and avoids bruising, and makes a perfect base for simple winter salads.
Alongside this, we also have French radicchio in from another of our suppliers. It pairs beautifully with fennel and the blood oranges on the shelves at the moment. A gently sweet maple or balsamic dressing takes the edge off the bitterness of the radicchio and really lets the flavours shine.
