Vegetable pinzimonio: a special Italian recipe

Pinzimonio is a great Italian classic of the summer: you can have it as a snack, a starter or a side dish. It is light, fresh, healthy and very tasty, provided you use fresh vegetables and high-quality oil.

This recipe is quick and easy, but we still want to give you some advice for a perfect result.

For good pinzimonio you need excellent extra virgin olive oil!

Pinzimonio is a dish combining any choice of fresh vegetables to be dipped in an olive oil-based dressing, to which salt, pepper and lemon can be added to form an extremely tasty emulsion.

Of course, only high-quality extra virgin olive oil will add extra flavor to the vegetables.

For our pinzimonio our Chef selected the Farchioni Family Collection Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the product of a meticulous selection of the best olive oils in the world, obtained from olives which are milled as soon as they are picked to preserve all their organoleptic properties.

This high-quality oil is bright green and its herbaceous aroma recalls the smell of fresh vegetables. Because of its elegant and balanced flavor, it is recommended both for cooking and for dressings.

The best way to fully enjoy the taste and genuineness of our olive oil is to use it without any additional condiments. You may add salt to your vegetables after dipping them.

Pinzimonio: which vegetables?

When it comes to pinzimonio you can give free rein to your imagination: you can use virtually any kind of vegetable. We advise you to opt for seasonal fresh vegetables that you will buy from your greengrocer.

For our recipe, the Chef has selected celery, carrots, red peppers, fennel, Belgian endive, cucumbers and radicchio (when in season, we recommend that you replace radicchio with artichokes, which make a delicious pinzimonio).

Once you have rinsed and thoroughly dried your vegetables you may proceed to the next steps:

• Cut the leaves off the celery, remove any filaments and cut the stalk into sticks.
• Remove the bulb and stalks of the fennel as well as the tough outer leaves, then cut it into wedges.
• After removing filaments and seeds, cut the peppers into strips.
• Peel your cucumbers and cut them into sticks.
• Remove the outermost leaves of the endive and radicchio and chop off the very bottom of the base, so that the inner leaves come loose and can easily be dipped.

Now all you have to do is place the vegetables vertically in a glass or in a tall bowl for your guests to take them and dip them into their own bowl of extra virgin olive oil. If they so wish they may add lemon, salt or pepper.

After these few tips, please find the recipe for this tasty and colorful dish.