Sicilian Salad w/ Pomegranate Jewels

This is the dish you need for the very first blue sky day at the beginning of September. Pair it with a glass of orange wine, crisp and bright as the midmorning sunshine, a large picnic blanket, some strips of grilled haloumi or (for the pescatarians) an oily white fish. Maybe throw some crusty, heavily buttered bread on a side plate and then spend a few good hours lounging around, properly welcoming the first, tentative, ever-so-hopeful hints of sun and warmth and spring.

Sicilian Salad w/ Pomegranate Jewels

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

1 fennel bulb, very thinly sliced

1 orange, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds

1⁄2 cup of pitted Kalamata olives, halved

1 pomegranate

A handful of fresh fennel and parsley, to garnish

A splash of olive oil (to serve)

Salt and cracked black pepper (to serve)

Method

In a medium bowl, combine the red onion, fennel, orange slices and Kalamata olives. Toss gently to combine.

Cut the pomegranate in half through the centre (don’t cut it lengthways through the spiky top, or it will be harder to remove the seeds).

Hold one half of the pomegranate over a large bowl, with the cut side facing your palm. Using a big wooden spoon, hit the back of the pomegranate (skin side) with the flat part of the spoon, knocking out the pomegranate seeds through your fingers into the bowl (of all the methods I’ve tried, this is by far the easiest way to remove pomegranate seeds without getting big chunks of the white rind in the mix).

Add the pomegranate seeds to the rest of the salad and toss gently once more. Scatter over the fresh fennel and parsley, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and cracked black pepper, then serve.

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