Agretti or miniscordi salad!
If there’s a side dish that announces the arrival of the warm season, this is surely represented by agretti.
Known in many parts of Italy also as “barba di frate”, here in Abruzzo we affectionately call them miniscordi.
It’s a vegetable I love very much, despite requiring a certain dose of patience: the drawback, in fact, is their cleaning.
You need to allow yourself time to remove the small red roots and the tougher stems, but I assure you that once you taste them, the effort disappears with the first bite.
In Abruzzo the miniscordi start to appear at the market stalls around the end of February.
At first the price is a bit high, but as the season progresses, around April, they become more affordable.
One tip I give is to buy them in large quantities: as happens with almost all boiled vegetables, in fact, once cooked they tend to shrink drastically.
To bring a generous portion to the table for the whole family, don’t be afraid to fill your shopping basket!
My recipe for agretti or miniscordi in salad focuses entirely on simplicity to enhance their natural flavor.
The dressing is a timeless classic… high-quality extra virgin olive oil, salt and a generous squeeze of lemon that brightens their vivid green color.
But the real secret, the one that cannot be missing, is garlic.
I adore it and use it in large quantities; I usually cut it into small pieces, but when I cook only for me and my husband I prefer to crush it: this way it releases all its intense aroma and makes the dish even more flavorful.
This salad is the perfect side to accompany fish dishes or white meats, but it is also delicious eaten alone with a slice of rustic bread.
If you have never tried them in this rustic, hearty version, I invite you to follow my steps.
Let me know in the comments if, like me, you find that garlic is the soul of this dish!
Approx. 152 kcal per person
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 servings
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients to make Agretti or Miniscordi Salad
- 4 lb 7 oz Agretti
- Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1.5 tbsp)
- to taste Salt
- 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves Garlic
Preparation of Agretti or Miniscordi Salad
Take the agretti and remove the roots and the hard part between the tufts, wash them well several times and drain them.
Prepare a large pot and put the cleaned agretti in it, fill with water and boil.
You will need to monitor the cooking; they will be ready when they are tender but still firm.
Once boiled, drain them well for at least 1 hour in a colander, then put them in the fridge for at least one hour before serving.
When they have cooled well, dress them with oil, salt, lemon and the peeled garlic cloves cut into pieces, mixing everything well.
