Portuguese | Orange Salad

Posted on May 8, 2017

Great to serve with a Portuguese meal.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

For the dressing:

grated zest of 1 orange

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon honey

1 small garlic clove, minced

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

fine sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 

For the salad:

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 teaspoons olive oil

one 1/8-inch-thick slice presunto, Serrano ham, or prosciutto, minced

2 large oranges

12 cups (about 10 ounces) loosely packed young field greens

1/2 small yellow onion, cut lengthwise in half and sliced into thin half-moons

flor de sal, to taste

 

Method

Whisk together the zest, orange juice, vinegar, honey, and garlic in a small bowl. Dribble in the oil, whisking constantly until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use. The dressing can be made several hours ahead. Just before serving, give it a good whisk.

Toast the pine nuts in a small dry skillet over medium heat, tossing often, until golden brown. Turn out onto a plate to cool.

Add the oil to the same pan and, when hot, sear the presunto until crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, cut off and toss out the top and bottom of the oranges and set the fruit on a work surface. Using a paring knife, start at the top each orange and follow the curve to remove the peel and white pith in wide strips. Working over a bowl, slice between the membranes of the orange sections to release them and let the sections fall into the bowl. Drain off the juice.

Combine the greens, onion, and orange sections and toss in a large bowl with enough dressing to suit your taste. Divide the salad among six plates, sprinkle with the pine nuts and presunto crumbs, and finish off with a sprinkling of flor de sal and a few grinds of pepper.

 

(Ref. "Orange Salad with Pine Nuts" recipe, The New Portuguese Table, page 165.