1: Trim a little from the base of 5 endives (head of chicory), remove and discard any untidy leaves, then wash endives.
2: Boil a large pan of salted water. With a small sharp knife, remove a small cone from the bottom and discard it. The cone size depends on endive size, usually about half an inch is fine. This reduces the endive's bitter taste. Note:If endive are medium or big size, think to cut them in two, from top to bottom, to reduce cooking and blenching time.
3: Put endives in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes...
4: ... then remove them using a skimmer, put into very cold water. You've just blanched endives, and we do that to reduce the bitterness still further.
5: Leave endives in cold water for five minutes, then drain and dry them. The best way is to use a salad spinner, and then leave on a tea-towel.
Remarks
In this recipe I say "reduce bitterness" because we don't want to suppress it entirely: it's part of the endive taste, its character, that we should keep.