I made this simple salad of blood oranges, green olives and olive oil for a snack the other day and it was so beautiful that I couldn’t help but take photos of it. I’ve had the photos posted on Flickr for a couple of days now but I hadn’t planned on writing about it here. It’s so simple that I really didn’t think of it as a recipe. But, I am absolutely head over heels in love with this photo and the taste of this dish was spectacular. So, even though there isn’t much to it, I’ve decided this is definitely a recipe worth sharing.
Within a week of arriving on the island, I had received my first Sicilian recipe. We were on a tour bus heading through the countryside towards some destination that completely escapes me now and our tour guide was giving us information about the orange groves that we were driving past. He mentioned that if anyone wanted to pull him aside later, he would share a recipe for a Sicilian orange salad. Of course I grabbed him the first chance I got and scribbled down the recipe on my little yellow notepad. It was a very simple orange salad. The ingredients were only sliced oranges, fresh garlic, fresh parsely, and olive oil. To be honest, I thought it was one of the strangest recipes I’ve ever seen. I grew up in California eating fresh oranges every winter but I had never heard of anyone eating an orange with garlic and olive oil. In fact, we never really did anything with oranges other than peel them by hand and eat them or juice them. But I was completely fascinated by the recipe and the first time I tried oranges paired with olive oil, I was hooked.
Well now I am constantly trying new salads that involve oranges and olive oil and if you’ve been browsing through any other food blogs lately, you might have noticed that lots of other people are exploring this combination as well. If you want something a little more complex than I am giving you today, there are tons of citrus salads floating around the blogosphere right now. And a favorite orange and fennel salad that I tried recently can be found at Food “Blogga.”
But if you are new to eating oranges this way, this recipe is a simple and beautiful way to start:
Blood Orange Carpaccio with Green Olives
Blood orange slices
Green olives (preferably oil cured)
extra virgin olive oil
salt
- Peel and section oranges with a sharp knife, leaving the pith and membrane behind. Cut thicker slices in half if desired.
- Arrange orange slices on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, then add a sprinkling of coarse salt.
- Scatter some green olives over the plate and serve.
And I must thank my friend Aoi for naming this dish after she saw the photos on Flickr :-)
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