Shaved Fennel & Blood Orange Salad
From The Kitchen · a prep-ahead staple
This is a Sicilian winter table in a single dish, nothing but fennel, blood orange, olive oil and lemon, and yet it feels like something. The fennel stays crisp and cool, the orange turns it sweet, and a few olives make it savory. I could eat it every night in January.
Scaled from the original recipe, sizing up or down is proportional, so taste and adjust the salt, acid & spice.
Ingredients
- 1 large fennel bulb, very thinly shaved (a mandoline is ideal)
- 2 to 3 blood oranges (or Sumo, Cara Cara, or navel), peeled and sliced into rounds
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- A handful of black olives (Kalamata or Taggiasca), optional
- A few fennel fronds, or fresh mint
- Flaky sea salt & pepper
Method
- Shave the fennel as thinly as you can, a mandoline is worth it here, and spread it over a platter.
- Peel the blood oranges, removing all the white pith, and slice into rounds. Arrange them over the fennel.
- Whisk the olive oil and lemon juice with a pinch of salt, and drizzle over the top.
- Scatter the olives and fennel fronds (or torn mint), finish with flaky salt and pepper, and serve.
Storage: Best just made; the fennel softens as it sits.
No blood oranges? They're a winter fruit (December–April). Out of season, or if you simply prefer them, a Sumo, Cara Cara, or navel orange is delicious here too: a little sweeter, a little less tart.
Gina's tip
Drop the shaved fennel into a bowl of ice water for ten minutes before you build the salad, it comes out impossibly crisp and curled.
Save the feathery fennel fronds, they taste of the whole bulb and make a beautiful, free garnish. Nothing on a fennel bulb needs to go to waste.
I hope this recipe finds a place in your kitchen as it has in mine. Enjoy!
Gina