This is a salad that I’ve made twice recently, prompted by the unexpected availability of strawberries at local markets, along with the more seasonal fennel that is everywhere right now. It’s inspired by – and quite similar to – a savoury strawberry salad by Michael and Cindy of Where’s the Beef, which is to say, I was sitting there with some strawberries and fennel which I wanted to turn into a salad and was trying to decide what to do next, and then I remembered that Michael and Cindy put parmesan in theirs and realised that this was clearly the ingredient I was missing. Now I look at their version, I realise that toasted nuts of some kind would indeed have been fabulous, so I encourage you to add these.
Judging by the leftovers we had of this at dinner tonight, I would say you might profitably marinate everything except the salad greens and perhaps the parmesan in the dressing for an hour or so before serving (think balsamic strawberries), and then just toss the greens with everything at the last minute. But you don’t have to. It was lovely as is.
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1/2 a red onion (how does one write that, anyway? Writing out ‘half’ looks silly in a list, but there’s no doubt about it, 1/2 a red onion looks pretty damn silly too…) 2 tbsp blackberry vinegar, or balsamic vinegar, since I realise that not everyone is lucky enough to have blackberry vinegar, which is a truly sad state of affairs 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, and if it happens to be infused with blood orange, more power to you! 1 medium fennel bulb 375 g beautiful sweet strawberries 150 g mixed salad greens 20 g shaved parmesan black pepper Continue reading
