Radicchio is used here as an ingredient in most of the common salad mixes sold both retail and wholesale. It is on the bitter side as are most Italian "greens".
From the directions I have read for propagation it's no easy feat to grow it right. Here is everything you ever wanted to know;
RADICCHIO, CHICORY, ENDIVE & ESCAROLE. Chicory is a perennial (but usually
grown as an annual) and endive/escarole is an annual. Both are closely related and often one is
confused with the other. Red radicchio’s are chicory, but some chicories are green. Some
chicories make heads, some are open. For red chicory, the color is most intense red in cool
weather. Any chicory can either be used as they grow (easiest) or forced. (Forcing means you
dig up the plant in the fall, cut the root back to about 8”, cut off the head, replant it inside in a pot
(usually with moist peat moss) without light and in a few weeks you ‘force’ new growth that is
sweet/bitter and blanched. Chicory has that bitter/sweet flavor that Italians love. While you can
use chicory in salads, it is often cooked (fried or grilled) in Italy. Radicchio is an awesome
ingredient in risotto.
Endives are annuals and are grown and used as is. They are less bitter than chicory. The endive
category includes those with frilly leaves (sometimes called frisee) and the regular leaf
(usually called escarole). Also, don’t just use endive in salads. Cook them in soup, braise them
or stuff them.
GROWING CHICORY & ESCAROLE. Heading chicory & full size escarole do best when
they mature in the cool weather of fall. Grow cutting chicory & endive at any time (Simply
broadcast seed trying to get it an inch or so apart, tamp down or cover lightly and water until it
emerges in 3-5 days). Harvest by cutting it when it is four or more inches high. While it will
grow back, for best quality succession plant for continuous harvest. Loose leaf chicories
(puntarelle, brindisi, barba di frate) tend to mature in 60-90 days; heading escaroles tend to
mature in 60-75 days; red chicories anywhere from 65 to 110 days, so check your specific
variety. You can either direct seed or use five/six week old transplants. Set out so that they
mature when the weather is turning cool. If direct seeding, 1 seed ¼ inch deep spaced every inch.
Thin to one when you have 4-5 leaves. For green loose leaf chicory space 6-8”; 10-12 for
heading chicories; make rows 12-16”. PLEASE NOTE. Red heading chicories grow in a mass
of loose leaves. Don’t be fooled. Eventually inside that mass you will get a head forming. Most
chicories will overwinter and in the spring send up new shoots which are perfect for spring
salads. For grumolo types, if you plant them in the summer, they will make a head. Cut the head
in the fall and you will get the rosettes the next
.
