Beetroot and Radicchio Gratin
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- Serves: 4
- Preparation: 10
- Cooking: 30
- Ready: 40
A plate of incredible tones of deep pink and purple – lurid colours, but soft, sweet, warming and super-tasty flavours.
Ingredients
For the gratin
- 750 g beetroots
- 300 g small to medium waxy potatoes
- 1 head of radicchio
- a few sprigs fresh thyme
- a few sprigs fresh sage
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 unwaxed lemon
- 125 ml white wine
- 125 ml hot vegetable stock
For the gremolata
- a small bunch fresh parsley
- ½ clove garlic
- 1 red chilli
- zest of 1 large unwaxed orange
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan)/425°F (400°F fan)/gas mark 7 (gas mark 6 fan). Fill and boil a kettle and get all your ingredients and equipment together.
Peel the beetroots and use a food processor or a mandolin to finely slice them. Scatter them in a deep baking dish approximately 20 cm × 25 cm. Slice the potatoes in the same way and scatter them over the beetroots. Shred the radicchio as you would a lettuce – avoiding and discarding the root – and add this to the tray too.
Pick the leaves off the stalks of the thyme and sage, slice the garlic and add to the dish, then grate over the zest of the lemon and season well with salt and pepper. Toss everything together, then use your hands to press and push everything level in the dish. Pour over the white wine and the hot stock – the liquid should come about halfway up the potatoes – and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the gremolata. Finely chop the parsley, garlic and chilli and put into a bowl with the orange zest. Mix well, season with a little salt and pepper and put to one side.
Once the gratin is browned on top and crisp around the edges, it should be ready; check by pulling a potato from the middle of the gratin and making sure it’s cooked through. Serve with a watercress or rocket salad and, if you like, some bread for mopping up the juices.
Additional notes
This recipe is taken from Anna Jones’s new book, A Modern Way to Cook.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Anna Jones and 4th Estate.
“This is a tray of crisp-edged beetroots, winter herbs and golden potatoes. A plate of incredible tones of deep pink and purple – lurid colours, but soft, sweet, warming and super-tasty flavours. The beetroots perfectly counter the gentle bitterness of the radicchio, so if you are new to bitter leaves this is a great place to start. If you can’t find radicchio, a couple of red chicory will work well.
Bitter leaves are really good for digestion. They are even thought to help counter cravings for sweet foods, and if you are anything like me, sometimes a bit of help with the sugar cravings can be a good thing.
I top this gratin with a punchy gremolata, chopped fresh herbs with proud amounts of citrus and garlic; the grassy freshness, zippy orange and punch of garlic take this gratin to the next level. I serve it with a watercress salad, but if you like you could have some bread on the side for mopping up the juices.”
