Orange, fennel and olive salad

Orange salad is a typical dish of Sicily: slices of orange dressed with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, often with fennel, black olives or onion. Winter is the right time, when oranges are in season, blood oranges if possible. The acidity comes from the oranges themselves: no vinegar is needed.

Ingredients for 4

• 4 oranges, blood oranges if possible
• 1 fennel bulb
• About a dozen black olives
• Half a red onion (optional)
• 4 tablespoons IL CONTE Raggia single variety
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Peel the oranges with a knife, removing the white pith too, and cut them into slices or segments, saving the juice that runs out.
2. Trim the fennel, keep a few green fronds aside and slice it very thinly.
3. If using, slice the onion thinly.
4. Arrange the oranges, fennel, onion and olives on a plate, with the saved juice.
5. Dress with oil, salt and pepper, add the fennel fronds and leave for about ten minutes before serving.

The right oil

Here the oil is eaten raw and you taste it: the Raggia single variety, with its grassy notes and peppery finish, goes well with the sweetness of the oranges and the bitterness of the olives.

Photo: judywitts, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY 2.0.