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Rare and Unusual Veggie of the Month: Agretti

Get to know it and learn where to find it

If you’re looking for a truly unusual, even rare vegetable to try in the next couple of weeks, you can’t do better than agretti. How rare is agretti? Well, I tried looking it up in my various reference books under its assorted names, starting with the Latin, Salsola soda, and moving on to  leaved salwort, opposite leaf Russian thistle, Barilla plant, Barba di Frate, roscana, and Liscari sativa and couldn’t find a single listing for it.

While it may not be in the books, it is in the markets, grown and sold locally by Polito Family Farms. I picked up a bunch on Saturday at the Little Italy Mercato. It’s a wild-looking, weed-like plant that has its origins in the Adriatic. Look for young plants—the ones with thin stems. The multitude of slender leaves look like those you’d find on rosemary but the flavor is significantly milder and grassy.

You can eat them raw—say, scattered in a salad or in a sushi roll—but they shine when sautéed with butter, olive, oil, shallot or garlic, and lemon. Like spinach, agretti will collapse as it cooks but you want to keep that crunchy texture so don’t over cook it. Enjoy agretti tossed with pasta or as a pizza topping. I sautéed some in olive oil, garlic, and chopped scallions and then poured beaten eggs over them to make a frittata, which I enjoyed with roasted Yukon gold potatoes.

Polito Family Farms will only have agretti for another couple of weeks but Specialty Produce also carries it.

Now, who's ready to get agretti-adventurous?

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