Lighten up your winter repertoire with this Winter Citrus Salad from Chef Daniel Gursha at Ledger. The Salem-based chef shares a recipe for a beautifully balanced dish that’ll brighten up even the darkest day with a combination of creamy stracciatella, fresh orange and grapefruit, and hints of green (pistachios, olives and oregano). If you have trouble finding stracciatella, you can substitute chopped up burrata.
Winter Citrus Salad with Stracciatella
Details
Servings Note: Serves two as a shareable appetizer
Ingredients
- 1/8 cup of pistachios
- 1 cara cara orange
- 1 white grapefruit
- 1 blood orange
- 10 Caselvetrano olives with the pit
- 6 ounces stracciatella (chef's note: Wolf Meadow Farms Amesbury, MA is Gursha's favorite)
- 1 pinch of flaky sea salt
- black pepper in a mill
- 1 sprig of oregano
- 1 lemon
- 2 ounces finishing olive oil
Directions
- Start out by toasting the pistachios, as you will need to cool them before the salad is composed. Put the pistachios on a sheet tray and toast at 350 degrees for 7 min, then check periodically until golden brown.
- Segment all the citrus except the lemon. Separate each individual citrus into its own container. Reserve the juice with each individual fruit by squeezing what is left of the center.
- Slice off the sides of the olives then cut into half-moon shapes.
- After the pistachios have cooled to room temperature, crush them using the bottom of a sauté pan in a rocking motion.
- Now you can compose the salad. Place the stracciatella on the bottom of the plate and sprinkle it with sea salt crushing it a little bit with your fingers as you season the cheese. Then, grind your desired amount of black pepper on top of the cheese.
- Place the citrus randomly over the cheese. Then, add the pistachio and then olives.
- Pick seven leaves of oregano to place on the salad and clap them in-between your hands before putting them on the plate to release the aroma.
- Finish with a fresh squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of the olive oil.
