When something is as unadorned as pane burro e acciughe, or bread topped with butter and anchovy, it doesn’t require much to turn it into something modern. This take dresses up the combination by topping slices of fettunta with a salad of puntarelle, a crunchy Italian chicory, and radicchio and finishing the dish with anchovies and black truffle. (Black truffles, a central component in Umbrian cooking, are primarily available in December and January.)
This can be turned into a more substantial starter, or even a light lunch, by doubling the amount of greens (and lemon juice and olive oil) and serving the fettunta alongside the salad.
Ingredients
- 2 cups thinly sliced puntarelle or frisée, soaked in
- ice water for 10 minutes and drained
- 0.5 head of radicchio, core removed and separated into leaves
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for
- serving
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 4 slices fettunta, still warm
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 16 oil-packed anchovy fillets
- 1 ounce black truffle
How to Make It
- Put the puntarelle and radicchio in a medium mixing bowl. Drizzle with the lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat the greens with the dressing.
- Spread the fettunta with the butter and set one slice in the center of each of 4 salad plates. Top with the salad and nestle 4 anchovy fillets in the salad on each plate. Finish each serving with a shaving of black truffle and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Serve while the toasts are still warm.
