Insalata di arance (con finocchietto)
Sicilian blood-orange and wild-fennel salad
An orange salad should still taste unmistakably of oranges. Here their sweetness is given a savory edge by salt, black pepper, olive oil, and a little oregano; wild fennel brings an airy, anise-scented finish without turning the plate into a vegetable salad.
The blood oranges grown in eastern Sicilia make an especially vivid version. Tarocco, Moro, and Sanguinello each bring a different balance of sweetness and acidity, and none needs vinegar to make it lively.
Ingredients
- 4ripe blood oranges, preferably Tarocco, Moro, or Sanguinello (about 800 g whole; see note)
- 15 gtender fresh wild fennel (finocchietto selvatico), feathery leaves and soft tips only (see note)
- 30 ml(2 tbsp)good extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tspdried oregano, crumbled between the fingers
- fine sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Kitchen notes
- Blood oranges
- Tarocco, Moro, and Sanguinello are the named blood-orange families of eastern Sicilia. Choose fruit meant for eating, firm and heavy for its size; the flesh need not be uniformly crimson. Blood oranges give this salad its distinctive balance of sweetness and acidity.
- Wild fennel
- Finocchietto selvatico is the aromatic herb's tender greenery, not the white bulb of cultivated Florence fennel. Use the soft leaves and tips, not tough stalks or dried fennel seed. A bulb would change this orange-first preparation into a different Sicilian salad.
Method
Prepare the fruit
- Cut a thin slice from the top and bottom of each orange. Stand it upright and cut away the peel and white pith, following the curve of the fruit. Cut crosswise into rounds about 1 cm (⅜ inch) thick, removing any seeds. Collect the juice released on the board and arrange the rounds in a shallow serving dish.
Dress and serve
- Pull the tender wild-fennel leaves and tips from any coarse stalks and chop them lightly. Stir the collected orange juice into the olive oil, then spoon it over the fruit. Scatter on the fennel, oregano, a small pinch of salt, and several turns of pepper. Turn the slices once, gently, so they are coated but not broken. Serve soon after dressing, while the fennel is fragrant and the fruit still holds its shape.