Agretti sightings

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At the Venice farmers market, I saw a crate full of interesting greens I thought I’d never seen before -- they looked like bunches of enormous, somewhat coarse dill. The folks at Polito Family Farms said it was agretti (also called monk’s beard), an Italian vegetable native to the wetlands around the Adriatic Sea. It tastes rather like a blend of spinach and chives, and they suggested blanching it and sauteeing it with garlic and olive oil, or even using it raw in salads. Then I remembered where I’d seen it: just the night before, on the menu at Campanile. (Campanile gets its agretti from Polito, as do Mozza and Wilshire.) Chef Mark Peel had prepared a plate of thinly sliced raw albacore, dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice, and topped with firm peaches and some beautiful feathery leaves of agretti, which at first I’d taken to be unusually large dill. But I’d been so engrossed in the rest of my meal (it was grilled cheese night, after all) that I’d forgotten to ask about it.

At the market, I bought a bunch, took it home and, since I didn’t have any raw tuna in my refrigerator, blanched and sauteed it with olive oil, sea salt, garlic and onion, as recommended. I did, however, have some La Quercia pancetta and some trofiette, tiny, cone-shaped pasta I’d picked up the last time I was at Cube. A little grated Parmesan and some cracked black pepper, and 20 minutes later I had a pretty great dinner. And another word in my food vocabulary.

Agretti, $3.50 for a large bunch; available from Polito Family Farms.

-- Amy Scattergood