“This is my take on a classic caprese salad,” says Chris. “Puntarelle adds texture, with a crunchiness and bitterness that is needed to offset the mozzarella and blood orange. If it proves tricky to track down puntarelle, then you can use fennel instead - you just need something to lift the salad and give it a bit of crunch.”
Recipe information
Yield
6
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Slice the skin off the blood oranges then cut them thinly into rounds. Cut the mozzarella into slices.
Step 2
Remove the green outer leaves of the puntarelle and slice the white shoots lengthways as thinly as possible, using a puntarelle cutter if you have one; if not, a sharp knife will do. Place them straight into a bowl of ice water to keep crisp. If using fennel, slice on a mandolin and put in ice water as with the puntarelle.
Step 3
To assemble the salad, arrange alternate slices of mozzarella and blood orange on a plate. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle with 2-3 tbsp of the olive oil.
Step 4
Drain the puntarelle shoots from the ice water, dry in a salad spinner and dress them with the remaining olive oil, the red wine vinegar and some salt. Arrange on top of the mozzarella and orange salad and serve straight away.
