Radicchio is a bitter salad leaf (think of endives), but it can be properly prepared to balance that bitterness with sweet or flavored aromas, or salty or peppery ingredients. Whenever you have endives, or radicchio, or treviso, balance it out with balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice and mix in other herbs and salad leaves that complement the taste: crunchy iceberg, peppery ruccola, orache (french spinach), spinach leaves...
What you need to do for this basic salad is get yourself a radicchio head and quarter it, then chop it finely - just slice the radicchio quarter thinly and then wriggle the strips free. Get yourself a handful of fresh rocket (every supermarket these days has bagged rocket that stays fresh for about a week) and mix it in, together with some salty crunchy cheese like parmesan (or pecorino, my personal favorite for this recipe). Then get a jar and prepare a quick dressing for the salad: 1 part balsamic to 3 parts extra-virg. Add salt and pepper, shake, and then mix it in with the salad (just enough to coat the leaves, not to soak it).
This is of course the basic version of this salad. You can add different things to complement the radicchio and rocket: smoked meat such as bacon or salmon is a nice companion, but so is anything roasted or toasted. Grilled ciabata (you can even plop the salad onto a grilled piece of italian bread and turn it into a dressed radiccio crostini), pangratatta, grilled fish, grated walnut, fresh thyme... You can add other salad leaves as well (spinach, endive, iceberg, bok choi, french spinach).
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