Culinary Explorer
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Insalata di Arance alla Siracusana
Created by Chef Graziella
The orange salad of Syracuse, where winter citrus needs nothing but olive oil, salt, and the restraint to add nothing more. A lesson in what happens when you trust perfect ingredients.
Sicilians do not need lessons in restraint, but they could teach them. This salad from Syracuse proves the point. Blood oranges, sliced and dressed with olive oil. Salt. Perhaps a few rings of red onion, perhaps some olives. Nothing else.
No vinegar. The orange is its own acid. Those who add lemon juice or balsamic have missed the entire philosophy of the dish. The fruit does the work. You simply arrange it properly and get out of the way.
This is winter food. Blood oranges come into season in January and February, their flesh striped with crimson from the volcanic soil and cold Sicilian nights. When you slice one open and see that deep red bleeding into orange, you understand why generations of Syracusans have been making this salad. You do not improve upon perfection. You serve it.
Ingredients
blood oranges
Quantity
4 large
red onion
Quantity
1 small
sliced paper-thin
oil-cured black olives
Quantity
12
pitted
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| blood oranges | 4 large |
| red onionsliced paper-thin | 1 small |
| oil-cured black olivespitted | 12 |
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