Fennel, Orange and Radicchio Salad

1. Trim the fennel and keep the fronds. Halve each bulb through the root and shave it across into thin half moons.
2. Drop the fennel and the fronds into a bowl of iced water and leave them for 10 minutes while you do the oranges.
3. Cut the top and bottom off each orange, stand it on the board and cut the skin and white pith away in strips, following the curve of the fruit.
4. Slice the oranges into rounds about 5mm thick over a bowl, so the juice that runs out is caught rather than lost.
5. Flick out any seeds with the tip of the knife. Summer oranges here are usually Valencias, which are juicier than winter navels and carry seeds.
6. Tear the radicchio into pieces roughly the size of the orange rounds, then rinse them in cold water for a minute to take the hard edge off the bitterness.
7. Drain and dry the fennel and the radicchio in a salad spinner or a clean tea towel. Everything from here needs to be dry.
8. Whisk the caught orange juice into the dressing and the olive oil in the bottom of the serving bowl, with the pinch of salt.
9. Add the fennel and the radicchio and turn them through the dressing with your hands, which is gentler on soft leaves than tongs.
10. Lay the orange rounds over the top, then scatter on the chopped nuts, the torn olives, the parsley and the fennel fronds.

Prepare ahead, dress at the table

Fennel weeps. Salt and acid pull water out of the shavings, and 40 minutes after dressing you have a puddle in the bottom of the bowl and limp fennel on top. Every component holds for four hours: fennel and fronds in iced water in the fridge, oranges sliced and covered with their own juice, radicchio washed and dried, nuts chopped. Combine at the last moment, and if the salad has to travel, carry the dressing in a jar and assemble at the other end.

Questions we get asked

What can I use instead of radicchio?

Witlof is the closest swap, a little milder and better at holding its shape, so halve the leaves lengthways. Red cabbage shaved thin gives you the colour and the crunch without the bitterness. Rocket works if you add it at the last second. What you are replacing is bitterness and colour, so choose something that brings at least one of the two.

Can this salad be dressed ahead of time?

No, and it is the one rule worth keeping. Raw fennel starts losing water the moment salt and acid touch it, so dressed early it goes soft and the bowl fills with liquid. Everything else can be done four hours ahead and kept in the fridge. Dress within 20 minutes of serving.

Which oranges work best in a fennel salad?

Any sweet eating orange, sliced into rounds rather than segmented. Australian navels run through winter and into spring while Valencias carry the summer, so the orange you buy in December is usually a Valencia: juicier, thinner skinned and seeded, so flick the seeds out as you slice. Blood oranges make the prettiest version, but their season here is winter, which makes it a July dish rather than a Christmas one.

What to put beside it

This is sharp, bitter and juicy, so it sits well next to something rich: cold roast meat, a baked side of fish, or cheese with fig and olive seed crisps at $6.95 if the salad is standing in for a starter. For a second bowl that does not repeat itself, the roasted carrot, fig and almond salad is roasted and warm where this one is raw and cold, and our guide to salads for Christmas works out how many salads a table actually needs.

If one bottle is going to earn its keep this summer, this is the one. Ottolenghi Orange Marmalade Dressing is $24.95 for 250ml and sits with the rest of our gourmet condiments and olive oil and vinegars ranges, along with the festive entertaining essentials that go on the same table. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.