dandelion (Taraxacum officinale); fennel (Foeniculum vulgare); corn salad, also called mâche and lamb’s lettuce (Valerianella locusta); hops (Humulus lupulus); mustard (Brassica nigra); nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus); purslane (Portulaca oleracea var. sativa); salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius); sorrel (Rumex acetosa); and violets (Viola odorata). The more esoteric ones include chickweed (Stellaria media); Good-King-Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus); nepitella, also called calamint (Calamintha nepeta); minutina, also called erba stel-la and buck’s horn plantain (Plantago coronopus); shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris); silene (Silene vulgaris); mallow (Malva sp.); alexanders or black lovage (Smyrnium olusatrum); rampion (Campanula rapun-culus); samphire (Crithmum maritimum); and nettles (urtica dioica), which must be cooked so the multitudinous prickly hairs on the leaves are softened.
“Wild greens” are borage, violets, sorrel, nepitella, purslane, nasturtiums, corn salad (mâche), and wild lettuce; rows of young nasturtiums and chicories (OPPOSITE BOTTOM) are ready for harvest as “wild greens.”
Historically, these wild greens were a welcome sight in the spring after a long winter of meals that were devoid of fresh edible leaves. The greens were consumed as a “tonic” to cleanse the system but were also enjoyed as a treat to the palate and for the senses after a gray winter. In fact, Italians who move to the city or away from Italy speak fondly of them. Italian chef Celestino Drago, who operates three restaurants and a bakery in Los Angeles, would make an annual pilgrimage to his home in Sicily. If he and his brothers couldn’t make the trip in early spring, their mom would make sure they could still enjoy the taste of the first flush of young wild greens, which she would lovingly cook or steam, drain and freeze until her sons could come home to her table. In the spring, when the California hills are covered with wild mustard, Drago would gather this potherb and continue the culinary tradition by preparing it for his family in several ways: as a simple vegetable, sautéed with garlic and olive oil; combined with a tomato sauce and spooned over pasta; or in risotto.
Seeds for many of the species mentioned above are available from specialty nurseries, but seeds for those plants known only as garden weeds (like shepherd’s purse and chickweed) may take a little more effort.
So let’s start with the easiest way to obtain these greens—seeing which ones are already growing wild in the fields and woods or growing as weeds in your garden. Obviously, these plants need to be identified properly. Use a field guide, such as the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; better yet, go out in the wild with someone who knows the plants (just as with mushrooms, a number of wild plants are poisonous). Keep in mind that common names are different all over the world, so use only the Latin names. Personally, I find Roger Phillips’s Wild Food a great help in identifying plants; it has many photos. Another helpful resource is the venerable Complete Book of Fruits and Vegetables, by a number of Italian botanists.
If you are gathering your greens from the wild, make sure they’re not growing by a heavily traveled road (to prevent lead contamination) and avoid rights-of-way that may have been sprayed with herbicides. The best time to forage is in the spring because all these greens need to be harvested when they are young or, if they are perennial plants, when they are producing new shoots and leaves. Very young plants or shoots are tender enough to be used raw in salads, but completely mature leaves are tough and bitter or acrid. Between the newest young shoots and the tough mature leaves is an in-between stage when the leaves are great cooked and used in soups or sauces; as fillings for a frittata, calzone, or torta; and as a topping on pizzas. They can also be blanched and made into nests that can be filled with cheese or eggs.
Growing a Misticanza Garden
The most common way to enjoy wild greens is in a misticanza, the Italian term for a combination of a variety of young, tender, and sweet leaves. Its French counterpart is called mesclun. However, in today’s restaurant vernacular, either mixture may in fact be just a mixed green salad containing many different lettuces and edible flowers—a far cry from freshly harvested young leaves in a combination of tastes and textures. According to Anna Del Conte in Gastronomy of Italy, “Roman gastronomes think a classic misticanza should include 21 different types of wild greens.… These include: arugula, sorrel, mint, radichella—a kind of dandelion—lamb’s lettuce, purslane, and other local edible weeds.” Some of us think that’s a bit extreme and settle for half a dozen or so.
The techniques for growing both an Italian misticanza and a French mesclun are identical. As few of us have all sorts of wild greens growing near our home, fortunately, there are prepackaged combinations of seeds for a traditional Italian misticanza available from specialty seed companies. For instance, Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) offers quite a selection of chicories and lettuces. Or you can mix your own combination of plants in which different tastes—for example, spicy, nutty, sweet, mild, and bitter—or different textures play off one another. As a note: Most of the seeds for the greens available from specialty growers are semi-domesticated; therefore, the plants will be more tender and succulent compared with foraged plants such as wild dandelion or chicory.
Growing a misticanza garden is easy and quick and is a rewarding way to start growing your own salad greens. Unlike large lettuces grown in rows in a traditional vegetable garden, you sow misticanza greens in a small patch and harvest them when the plants are very young (or if they are perennials, using only the newest shoots and leaves). One thing to keep in mind when choosing plants for your misticanza plot is to plant perennials in a separate location, for they will quickly outgrow the baby greens bed. Harvest your greens by plucking their young leaves as they are produced. An easy mix of plants for misticanza that is easy to start and maintain with the “cut-and-come-again” method of harvesting would consist of several baby lettuces of your choice, such as looseleaf ‘Lollo Rossa’ and the tender, small-leafed ‘Biondo Liscio,’ minutina; and two of the cutting chicories, ‘Ceriolo’ and ‘Catalogna Fras-tagliata.’ Another tasty blend is cress, arugula, the Catalonian cutting chicories ‘Dentarella’ and ‘Spadona,’ and several sweet baby lettuces such as baby romaine and salad bowl.
A misticanza bed can be grown in the spring or early fall. Choose a well-drained site that receives at least six hours of midday sun. Mark out an area about 10 feet by 4 feet (3 m by 1.2 m)—a generous space for a small family. Dig the area well and cover the bed with compost and manure to a depth of 3–4 inches (8–10 cm). Sprinkle the bed with a pound (454 g) or so of blood meal or hoof and horn meal and work all the amendments into the soil. Rake the bed smooth to remove clods and rocks, and you are ready to plant.
Gudi Riter steps away from her recipe testing to plant a small bed of baby salad greens, often called misticanza or mesclun, in my front garden. First (ABOVE LEFT) the soil is prepared by applying four inches of compost, and a few cups of blood and bone meal, and working them into the soil with a spading fork. Once the soil is light and fluffy and the nutrients are incorporated, the seeds from a prepackaged mesclun mix are sprinkled lightly over the soil so that the seeds average ½ inch apart. A half inch or so of light soil or compost is then sprinkled over the bed and the seeds and the
