Recipe: Orange, Olive, and Fennel Salad
We’ve posted a recipe for Orange and Fennel Salad before now, but that was before we had a proper mandoline! When we saw this recipe for fennel salad in Rebecca Gray’s book American Artisanal we just had to try it! We went to the market and treasure-hunted for fresh organic fennel, pink Cara Cara oranges, juicy scarlet blood oranges, and artisan-cured black olives.
We couldn’t find one ingredient, though…
…turns out that arugula really isn’t in season here and no one is carrying it. We substituted a mix of fresh local baby greens.
This is probably our favorite salad – we really can’t eat enough of fennel and orange. But the olives added a salty, savory kick – probably a similar role to the crab lump in a memorable salad we ate at Piccolo in Venice Beach. But olives are considerably cheaper and have a charm all their own!
We used some unbelievably meaty and delicious home-cured black olives from our local market.
We also used our new Benriner mandoline! So fun and easy. Look for a full review on Monday.
Orange, Olive, and Fennel Salad
Serves 4
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1 clove
garlic, halved
- 1/3 cup
extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup
fresh orange juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Leaves from 2 bunches arugula
- 4
navel oranges, peel and pith removed, sliced crosswise
- 1
large bulb fennel, halved and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup
pitted oil-curred black olives
Instructions
Rub a large salad bowl several times with the cut surface of the garlic clove; discard garlic. In a bowl, whisk the oil, orange juice, and salt and pepper.
Add the arugula to the bowl and toss with the dressing; transfer the arugula to chilled serving dishes. Add the oranges, fennel, and olives to the bowl with the dressing; gently toss them to coat lightly with dressing and arrange over the arugula on the plates. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Recipe © American Artisanal by Rebecca Gray, Rizzoli New York, 2008. Used with permission.