Lagniappe: Erbazzone with Salvatore Denaro

“This,” declared Salvatore Denaro, “is the most generous plant in the entire vegetable garden.” He was speaking to a roomful of cooking students as he held aloft a bushy stalk of cavolo nero, a Tuscan favorite green often called in the U.S. lacinato kale or dinosaur kale. It’s essential in Tuscan winter dishes, but surprisingly little known in other parts of Italy, even in neighboring Umbria where we were gathered in the kitchen of the Caprai winery in Montefalco to spend a sunny spring Sunday foraging and cooking with Salvatore.

With its ripply, blistery, blue-green leaves growing in loose clusters around a central stem, cavolo nero is a strong-flavored green that stands up well to winter chills—indeed, it’s one of those cabbage-family greens, like Brussels sprouts, that actually gets sweeter after a freeze. But Salvatore, who practices all the economy of a traditional Tuscan cook even though he’s actually from Sicily and until recently had a restaurant in the Umbrian city of Foligno, was insistent that even in spring, when the greens have sprouted, they are a delicious addition to a cook’s repertoire. Late March into April is when cavolo nero starts to put out delicate mustard-yellow blossoms. Eventually the blossoms produce seed, but in the meantime, the sprouting greens, called pulezze in Tuscan dialect, are deliciously pungent and refreshing. A favorite dish at that time of the year is salsicce e pulezze, fresh pork sausages with the greens to accompany them.