The combination of orange, olive and onion is one that I think of as essentially Sicilian: clean, beautifully simple and as much North African as it is Italian. Sicilian food, with its lavish use of Moorish favorites like dried fruit, couscous and hot peppers, along with pasta, anchovies and other staples of Italian cuisine, is a satisfying fusion of the many civilizations that have occupied the island over the past 1,000 years.
I like to make this salad with blood oranges, which are abundant in Sicily. In this country, they are grown mostly in California. Blood oranges have a spectacular color — either uniformly crimson or a crimson-flecked orange — and a mild, sweet flavor. In the Mediterranean, it’s common to drink blood orange juice for breakfast, blood orange soda in the afternoon and eat blood orange sorbetto in the evening.
In this salad, the oranges are peeled with a knife so the pith is removed along with the peel. In French cuisine when you peel citrus, you cut it into “supremes,” little filets obtained by cutting the flesh from between the membranes of the fruit. As a beginning chef, I was forced to cut cases of citrus into these insipid little shapes that reminded me of canned mandarin orange segments. I now prefer to cut them the Sicilian way — horizontally, into attractive round slices that have a little more texture than the supremes.
This dish is just as good (though not as lovely to look at), if it’s made with regular oranges. It can also be transformed into something a little more complex if you add a handful of mint leaves and even some shaved pecorino.
John Broening cooks at Duo restaurant, .
Blood Orange, Olive and Red Onion Salad
Serves 4.
Ingredients
4 blood oranges
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
16 black olives, pitted
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Pinch chile flakes
Optional:
16 mint leaves
2 ounces pecorino, shaved into thin slices
Directions
With a sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom of the oranges. Carefully cut off the remaining peel and pith (the white exterior coating of the orange), being sure to preserve the round shape of the orange. Cut each orange into about 5 horizontal slices and remove any seeds. Set aside.
On a large platter, arrange the oranges in a slightly overlapping pattern. Scatter the red onion, almonds and olives over the oranges. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and chile flakes. Add the pecorino and mint, if using. Serve immediately.
