radicchio

Radicchio is a perennial cultivated form of leaf chicory (Cichorium intybus, Asteraceae), commonly used in Italian cuisine. It is grown as a leaf vegetable and usually has colourful, white-veined red leaves that form a head. Radicchio has a bitter and spicy taste that mellows if it is grilled or roasted.

== History == Pliny the Elder wrote in Naturalis Historia that radicchio was useful as a blood purifier and an aid for insomniacs. Radicchio contains intybin, a sedative/analgesic, as well as a type of flavonoid, called anthocyanin.