Escarole Salad with Oranges and Red Onion
Description
We ate a version of this salad several times a week the winter we lived in Sicily. The oranges were plucked from the grove out front, chicory and fennel pulled from the garden, and onions retrieved from the shed where they had been cured and stored. The combination of sweet and bitter accented by the onion’s sharp bite, is very refreshing, especially against the rich meats and stews of the colder months. We still make it often, finding the ingredients we need at our local ShopRite. Less romantic to be sure, but just as satisfying.
— Kate & Guy, Onions Etcetera The Essential Allium Cookbook
Ingredients
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 navel oranges
1 head escarole
1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, optional
Directions
Put the sliced onions in a small bowl. Using a sharp knife, cut off all the orange peel and pith.
Working over the bowl of onions to collect the juice, cut the orange segments free from the membranes, letting the fruit drop into the bowl of onions. Squeeze the orange “carcasses” over the bowl to wring out a few last drops of juice. Let the onions and oranges sit (the juice will soften the heat of the onions) while you prepare the reset of the salad.
Wash and dry the escarole well, then tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and put in a salad bowl. Add the fennel to the escarole then season the salad with 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper.
Drain the onions and oranges, reserving the juice. Meausre out 1 tablespoon of the orange juice and add to the salad, along with the lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil. Toss everything together to coat with dressing. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. Scatter the onions and oranges on top and toss together very gently so that they are evenly strewn throughout the salad. If you like, sprinkle with the oregano and serve at once.
Special notes
Serves 4 to 6
Excerpted from Onions Etcetera by Kate Winslow and Guy Ambrosino. Copyright © 2017 Burgess Lea Press. Photography copyright © 2017 Guy Ambrosino. Published by Burgess Lea Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
