Lamb’s lettuce
Lamb’s lettuce, known in Italy as songino or valeriana, forms a rosette of soft, spoon-shaped edible leaves.
- Plant
- Valerianella locusta
- Leaf shape
- Spoon-shaped
- Growth form
- Low rosette
Try it in the kitchen
Leave the small leaves visible in a salad with sliced pear and walnuts. Or scatter them around a plate of roasted vegetables just before serving, so their rosette form remains part of the presentation.
Try songino with bresaola and grated cheese in the Grana Padano consortium’s piadina. Songino, also called valeriana, goes with radishes and Grana Padano in a salad from the consortium’s nutrition education project.
Songino and its botanical name
For this salad crop, look for songino, lamb’s lettuce or Valerianella locusta. The botanical name identifies the plant behind the culinary Italian name valeriana.
