We have always grown Full Heart Batavian Escarole. Sometimes I'd get nice full heads, but more often than not the plants would bolt or rot from the base before they were fully headed. "Bionda" gave me a reliable crop of full heads with no rot issues. The flavor was great. The leaves lacked the bitterness you can get from escarole in hot weather. We made soup. We made pasta escarole and beans. We made salads with just the escarole. A good choice.

Escarole is an excellent soup green, and can be added to lentil soup for a vegan meal (with some crusty bread to sop up the last drops). It is also tasty steamed and then sauteed with plenty of garlic and olive oil.

Italian wedding soup? I just love escarole. When summer wanes and there are no more tomatoes I have escarole to fill the void. Why stop growing and harvesting your own produce just because its cold outside? Start to fill in the gap with a row of escarole. Some winter greens are good in salad and some are great cooked. Not just the wedding soup whose chief ingredient is escarole stem or saute these babies with a sausage. Yum.