Involtino di foglie invernali

During the past winter (Christmas and New Year break), I visited my Italian home, Bergamo. To pay homage to Italian culinary culture and ingredients, I wanted to cook something special I learned from Chef Bruno at ALMA for my Italian family. And what could be better than the glorious winter vegetable, radicchio? With its vibrant color and pleasantly bitter taste, radicchio isn’t just another leafy vegetable—it’s a bold ingredient boasting an incredible variety of shapes, colors, textures, and flavors. When Thai people first see radicchio ¹, we might mistake it for red cabbage, but it actually belongs to the chicory family (excuse my influenced botanical nerdiness!).

The local grocery shop has out of season vegetables, but also an abundance of gorgeous local and seasonal produce.

Selections of vegetables at local grocery in Bergamo.

For this special meal, I decided to prepare “Involtino di foglie” a vegetable roll dish stuffed with a filling of mashed potato and radicchio leaves. Instead of the traditional “bagna cauda” sauce we made in class, I paired the dish with a reduced cream and white wine sauce, which I learned during my first class at the ALMA Essential Italian Cuisine course. I was stunned by Chef Bruno on how flavorful this sauce turned out, given that exceptional taste came from just simple ingredients of cream, white wine, salt and simple cooking techniques. To include a local Bergamasque twist, I substituted fresh herbs with my favorite local cheese, Branzi.

Our selection of winter leaves for our involtino di foglie. We choose erbette for wrapping, cavolo nero and varieties of chicory for the filling.

Me rolling the involtini.

The result was a delightful dish that beautifully showcased radicchio and added warmth and authenticity to our winter gathering.

The final dish.