Pinzimonio

  (4 servings / 15 minutes)

Utensils
Kitchen knives

Ingredients
2 artichokes
2 fennels
1 white celery
8 spring onions
4 carrots
2 Belgian endives
1 bunch of radish
1 fresh cauliflower
4 Trevisano chicories
2 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon
vinegar
salt and pepper

Preparation
• Wash the vegetables thoroughly and keep them in water with lemon juice for 10 minutes.
• Remove the external leaves from the artichokes and then cut them vertically.
• Make sticks with the fennels, the celery, the endives, the radishes and the peeled carrots.
• Remove the first peel from the spring onion and halve them, scrape the radishes slightly.
• Put the vegetables back in the water with lemon, so that they don’t get black.
• Put the oil, the vinegar, the salt, the pepper and the minced garlic in a small cup and mix together quickly.
Presentation
Place the bouquet of vegetables in a large platter and bring to the table with the oil dip sauce.
It is possible to prepare a unique emulsion to be placed in the centre of the table or a personal  oil dip for each dining companion.

Kids partecipation
The vegetable sticks will offer young chefs the opportunity to give vent to their creativity, making creations in Arcimboldi’s style to decorate  the platters.

Comments
The word “pinzimonio” (oil dip) was used, at the beginning or at the end of a meal, to indicate the use of raw vegetables dipped in oil and salt. In fact, the oil dip was already common in the sumptuous banquets of the Renaissance, when the meat course trays were decorated with lots of vegetables. At the end of the meal,  the vegetable decorations were then dipped in the meat sauces.

Nutritional and cultural curiosities
The choice of the vegetables for the oil dip is free and is mainly linked to products seasonality.

Useful tips
For preparing a “royal” oil dip it is possible to make other sauces adding mayonnaise, mustard or chickpea sauce and to combine vegetables with boiled eggs divided in four and some slices of brown bread and little butter.