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Preboggion: The Wild Edible Plants of Liguria

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8 different types of edible wild plants

Edible wild plants. How many can you name?

Preboggion, also known as prebuggiun, or prebugiun, is a traditional mix of edible wild plants (piante spontanee or erbe selvatiche if you’re Italian) harvested in Liguria and the Italian Riviera in the Spring, and a foraging tradition I think it’s worth taking a page from. 

As I researched different uses of wild plants around the world for my book, I came across references to preboggion and the derivative recipes made from it and was fascinated. There isn’t a lot of documentation (in English at least) but there’s enough to grasp the basic concept: harvest many young plants, then cook them together. The name itself comes from the Genoese word for “to boil before”-a pretty common practice with wild plants around the world, and a common practice when the greens may have strong flavors.

Documentation 

I have around 40 books on Italian food, and have read and donated many more over the years, but only two have referenced the specific mixture of foraged greens: Piantee Spontanee, and The Oxford Companion to Italian Food. 

the oxford companion to Italian cuisine and Piante spontanee books

Both of these books describe preboggion.

Like many traditional foods, exactly what the mixture is made from seems to vary. I’ve seen references saying it should be made with anywhere from five to twenty-three individual wild plants.

a description of Italian preboggion from a book

Piante Spontanee claims 23 species can be used in the mixture.

Some of these plants are difficult to come by in North America (wild poppy greens, for example) but, by looking at the families they come from, I think it’s pretty easy to make something similar, even if you’ve never been to the Val Gravelia, the Genoese valley and reputed cradle of Preboggion. 

A description of Italian preboggion from the Oxford guide to Italian cuisine

From the Oxford Companion to Italian Cuisine.

If that wasn’t interesting enough, this mixture of plants is only one of a couple traditional blends of wild greens harvested in the same region. Pistic, arguably the most obscure Italian wild food tradition I’ve come across, has been said to contain over 50 individual plants. 50. Individual. Plants. Two recent blends I made are below. 

8 leaves of edible wild plants laid out on a butternut board
Sochan, dame’s rocket, nettle, campion, dandelions, bluebells, waterleaf.
ramps, dock, sochan, bluebells, waterleaf, and dandelions
Ramps, dame’s rocket, dock, sochan, bluebells, waterleaf, dandelions, nettle.

Borage 

Preboggion stands apart from other blends of greens (like Tuscan Minestrella) in that almost every reference I’ve seen mentions borage greens as an important component.

Borage flowers (Borago officinalis) in a garden
Borage flowers.
Borage greens in a garden
Borage leaves

The other wild plants used seem to vary from place to place, and seem to be a combination of asters and other strong-tasting greens. Since borage is a summer plant, I’ve been using Virginia bluebells in my mixes. 

Edible virginia bluebells getting washed

Bluebells / Mertensia virginica.

Traditional Plants Used 

Accounts vary, but here’s a list of plants I’ve seen in my personal library and from Italian websites. 

  • Borage (Borago officinalis) 
  • Beet Greens (Beta vulgaris) 
  • Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) 
  • Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) 
  • Poppy greens (Papaver rhoeas)
  • Burnet (Sanguisorba minor) 
  • Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) 
  • Chicory (various cichorium) 
  • Bladder campion (Silene vulgaris) 
  • Sculpit / Stridolo (Silene inflata) 
  • Mallows (various Malva sp) 
  • Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) 
  • Scorzanera Greens (Reichardia picroides)
  • Bristly Hawkbit (Leontodon hipsidus) 
  • Nettles (various Urtica sp) 
  • Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria-described as poisonous in most references!) 
8 different types of edible wild plants

2019 version: ramps, nettles, bluebells, dandelions, dame’s rocket, dock, waterleaf.

Tips for making your own 

  • Very young greens of a similar size are the best-ideally you don’t want to chop them after blanching or steaming. 
  • For the strongest flavor, steam the greens. For a milder flavor, blanch them in salted water. 
  • The traditional versions, besides including borage, include a number of different, strong-tasting asters. At the very least, use some kind of bitter greens in your blend to give it a deeper flavor. Using all mild greens can be boring, especially if they’re blanched.  
  • The more greens you use, the more interesting it will be. 

Traditional Recipes 

So, we know a lot of greens are gathered and cooked together, but how? I’ve collected a few examples, some well known, and some more obscure or regional/localized. Pansotti seems to be the most well-known preparation, where greens are cooked, mixed with sheep milk ricotta, tucked into triangular ravioli and served with a walnut sauce. 

Green, triangular ravioli made with wild edible plants

Ravioli with wild greens? Yes please.

Other preparations might be mixing the greens with cooked potatoes (verdure trovata) bread (pane cotto) simmered with garlic, chopped sage and rosemary and a splash of red wine, or made into soup with rice and topped with pesto. The most basic version is what I’ve been making the most though: simply cooked with a smashed clove of garlic, lemon and olive oil. 

Ligurian pansotti of foraged greens with walnut sauce and borage flowers

Pansotti with walnut sauce is a traditional recipe.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit about the fascinating tradition of preboggion. To celebrate Spring, I’d challenge you to go to one of your favorite places and see if you can harvest at least seven different edible plants and make your own local version. No two bowls I’ve made have been the same, and I kind of like it that way. 

Foraged greens cooked with lemon and olive oil in a stoneware bowl

My latest version. I added some fiddleheads just because.

Ligurian preboggion with garlic, olive oil and lemon in a stoneware bowl
Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes

Preboggion Genoese (Wild Greens with Garlic, Olive Oil and Lemon)

A mix of young Spring wild greens simply cooked with garlic, olive oil and lemon.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time5 mins
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Preboggion
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 6 oz Mixed wild greens aim for at least 7 different species, preferably including some borage and asters.
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper
  • Crushed red pepper, to taste optional

Instructions

  • Wash and clean the greens, then spin dry.
  • Crush the garlic clove to a paste with the back of a knife.
  • If you want a milder flavor from your greens, blanch them in salted water for 30 seconds, then remove and cool.
  • Heat the garlic and oil over medium heat until light-brown, then add the greens, along with a splash of water (if they're raw) cover the pan and cook for a couple minutes until the greens are tender and taste good to you.
  • Double check the seasoning for salt, pepper and heat, adjust as needed, then serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Resources 

Ligurian You Tube
Oxford Companion to Italian Food
Piante Spontanee

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David Allen

    May 7, 2022 at 10:40 am

    5 stars
    Imagine my surprise when I was telling my girlfriend from Peru about this and she said she used to get this at a restaurant in Lima, where it was called Liguria on the menu. :0

    Apparently there was a large migration of people from that region to Peru during WW2.
    As an avid forager, I look forward to making this soon.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 7, 2022 at 2:50 pm

      That’s great David, thanks for sharing.

      Reply
  2. Clayton

    May 10, 2022 at 1:16 pm

    5 stars
    This is one of the things that I loved about your book — so many highly adaptable recipes for the huge variety of wild greens available in the spring. I’ve sometimes struggled to figure out what to do with “pick and mix” harvests of lots of different types of shoots and leaves and buds in the spring, but I feel like your book solved that issue for me. Thanks for sharing all of your research!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 10, 2022 at 7:14 pm

      Thanks Clayton.

      Reply

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Alan Bergo
I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
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