Lampascione ✦

Lampascion

What it is

It is a grape hyacinth bulb, not an onion, and Rome ate it: Apicius gives bulbi boiled and dressed with oil and vinegar, and Latin writers kept repeating that they restored a husband's vigour. Puglia and Basilicata still dig them in winter and cook them under wood ash.

In the kitchen

Peel them and soak a full day in cold water, changed three or four times - it takes the harshness off without removing the bitterness, which is the point. Then boil until tender and dress them hot with oil and vinegar, or bury them in the ashes of a wood fire.

Goes with

Olive oil Red wine vinegar Garlic Egg Pork Chili pepper Parsley Potato

In season alongside

Cavolo nero Escarole Kale Arbutus berry Bagnoli truffle Bamboo shoot

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