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Fennel, Orange and Olive salad

March 29, 2015 by Barbara Leave a Comment

A winter treat: fennel, orange and olive salad

You won’t find a more refreshing salad than this one with fennel, orange and olives.  Enhance it with with tender baby greens, olives, shaved parmesan and the best extra virgin olive oil you can buy.  I first had a version of this salad at a restaurant in the hilltop, medieval  Tuscan town of Anghiari, just 6 kilometers from our town of Sansepolcro.  The beauty of this salad is that it’s easy to put together, takes only minutes and, as most Italian food, very healthy dish.  Hey, I forgot to add the parmesan shaves to the dish above!

So start with a gorgeous bulb of fennel, finocchio, and a luscious orange, arancia.  A blood or a cava cava orange is best but you can also use a navel.  You can even substitute the orange for another citrus fruit such as a grapefruit.  Get a sharp knife, but you won’t need it for the fennel, only the orange.

Start with one large fennel bulb and a winter orange such as a cara cara

 

First A Word About Winter Oranges

Let Sunkist enlighten you about winter oranges.  Both blood and Cara Cara oranges are available in the U.S. from January through April.  Navels hit the markets from November through May.  You may find imported oranges during the rest of the year.

Fennel, fortunately, can be found all year round and that’s good news because I can’t get enough of it.  For this salad, use a mandolin and carefully thinly slice the fennel for your salad.  If you don’t use a mandolin, get out a coupon and go get one at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  If you don’t have a coupon, I’ll send you one as I have a drawer-full.  Anyhow, one small bulb will do for a salad for four.  If you have a larger bulb and have any left over fennel, through it into the pan with the rest of your soffrito when you make your next pasta sauce. Capita?

Use a mandolin to shave thin slices of fennel.

Carve up your orange.  Here’s I’ve cut off the peel.  Then I put the orange on its side and sliced it into quarter-inch rounds.

Take the skin off the orange.

I use a vegetable peeler to shave parmesan cheese.  It’s quick and easy.

Use a potato peeler to shave off pieces of parmesan cheese.

Add your oil and the olives and you’re in business!

Fennel, orange and olive salad is great with or without the arugula bed.

 

Print

Fennel, Orange and Olive Salad

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 large fennel bulb
  • 2 cara cara or blood oranges
  • 1 wedge of parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup of baby arugula leaves, washed and dried (optional)
  • about 20 black olives
  • olive oil to taste

Directions:

  1. Cut the ends off the fennel bulb and slice it thin, preferably on a mandolin
  2. Cut the skin off the oranges and slice them about 1/4" thick
  3. With a potato peeler, shave slices off a parmesan wedge, about18-20
  4. Arrange arugula on 4 serving plates.  Layer the orange and fennel slices over the arugula
  5. Sprinkle parmesan shavings over the salad
  6. Distribute the olives around the plates
  7. Drizzle olive oil over the salads and serve

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: arugula, black olives, blood orange, cara cara orange, fennel, fennel salad, orange, shaved parmesan cheese

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Hi. I'm Barbara Francis and I hope you like authentic Italian food as much as I do. It's simple, fresh, seasonal. What's not to like? And it's part of my heritage. So join me in the kitchen of Italian Food Made Simple. Just step right over the dog, she won't move even if you ask her.

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