Deliciously fresh little salad – Fennel, radicchio, grapefruit and olive salad with mint, pine nuts, apricot kernel oil vinaigrette
Salade délicieusement fraîche – Salade de fenouil, trévise, pamplemousse et olives avec vinaigrette de menthe et pignons à l’huile de noyaux d’abricots
Another salad…fresh and simple, with a little bittersweet twist to it. The fennel and the radicchio combined with the grapefruit make it fresh with a crunchy texture. Actually you can substitute some orange slices to the grapefruit, they both are a nice addition to the salad. Radicchio salad, called radicchio di Treviso in Italian and “trevise” in French, in reference to the city of Treviso, in the Northeastern part of Italy where they grow and eat a lot of it. They consume a lot of radicchio at every meal, even with polenta. I like it’s slight bitterness and crunchy when eaten uncooked. You can also sauteed it in garlic and olive oil and eat it like spinach as a side dish or combined it with pasta as one of the ingredients.
The exciting part of the salad is the vinaigrette. I found some apricot kernel oil a while ago in some specialty store in San Francisco, and I was just curious to taste and smell it, so I had to buy the bottle since it was not available for tasting. The color is a deep yellow and texture is thicker than regular oil. It’s made with the almond found inside the pit so it does not taste like the apricot, but more like an almond. It’s mainly cold pressed to keep it nutritive values. I like it with salads and fish, but does not go well with meats.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 radicchio head, chopped
- 2 handful of rucola
- 1 fennel bulb, shaved
- 2 small pink grapefruit or 2 large navel oranges
- 2 tbs pitted kalamata olives and slices in 2 lengthwise
Vinaigrette
- 2 tbs apricot kernel oil
- 2 tbs mint, chopped
- 1 tbs orange juice
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Wash fennel, cut in two pieces lengthwise and shave with a mandolin, place in a mixing bowl. Cut the radicchio head and cut lengthwise and slice in small strips. Add to the fennel and add rucola. Peel grapefruit and remove the skin from the quarters. set aside.
For the vinaigrette mix all ingredients together.
Add vinaigrette to the salad. Add olives and mix well. Place in small plates and add grapefruit at the end.
This is such a gorgeous dish. I would be honored if you would submit the recipe to our December’s BATTLE FENNEL and participate in the fun!
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