Italian cooks often used escarole and various chicories as cooked greens in recipes. I've seen Lydia Bastianich make an escarole and lemon soup, with a chicken stock base and rice, which sounded pretty good -- it might be on her website, do a google search for 'Lydia's Italy'. Mary Anne Esposito did an escarole and cheese filling for ravioli on 'Ciao Italia' -- try googling that as well, or go to one of the cooking sites like recipezaar.com and see what pops up.

However, radicchio will store for at least a couple moths, and, if conditions are right, for the winter, if you bury it below the frost line in a pit lined with straw, similar to the way cabbbage can be stored. The key seems to be keeping the pit dry, so that the straw remains light and fluffy and the heads don't rot. If you try this, pull it and leave the roots on. I'd do this very late, just before it's going to freeze up and ruin the raddichio. Worked for me when I tried it a few years ago -- did a pit with cabbages, some root veggies, radicchios, chinese cabbage, etc.

Dennis

Thanks for those good suggestions, Dennis. All of them sound worth trying. I like beans and greens very much. I make it with escarole, but the radichhio would work well too I'm sure. I will give serious consideration to the storage pit idea. It is an idea I have thought of from time to time. Maybe it's time to go for it.

Jim