Within a few days of harvest, place these little caps on individual heads of frisée, escarole, and other chicory types to blanch their hearts. The caps keep the sunlight off the plants, resulting in heads with delicate, pale-yellow to white inner leaves that are less bitter and more tender to the tooth. Blanching — long and widely practiced in Europe — takes away the more unpleasant, bitter notes of chicories, and you will find it well worthwhile, resulting in exquisite salads and grilled chicories with sweet, creamy-white hearts.

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