Pain de Sucre - Sugarloaf Chicory

This time of year, pain de sucre is found in bins amid the winter varietal greens, spinach, the many strains of radicchio chicory, nestled between the squash and pumpkins. Tender looking elongated tightly packed loaves, in English called Sugarloaf Chicory, tumble gladly into my market basket. While it's still dark in the early evenings, I walk down to the Wednesday night market at Place Carnot where the local farmers come once a week and keep an eye out for it.

I like to cook my pain de sucre by slicing it into chunks, rinsing the leaves, and lightly poaching them in a billowy herbal broth that's been simmered with a big winter bouquet and a ham bone. Chicory goes with pork. I float the poached leaves with the meat and herbs, sometimes adding wedges of pumpkin or topping the soup with shavings of good hard cheeses. A spritz of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and a grind of rose peppercorns or sichuan pepper acts like a little taste ladle that captures the bitter goodness and lifts it up for a second boost of winter satisfaction. Wrap yourself in a sweater, sip this soup in a chair by the window, slurp the bitter greens, and settle in for an afternoon soaking up some prose.

It somehow seems like spring is around the corner this week.