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| Mercato del Capo, Palermo, Sicily |
After a morning wandering round the Mercato del Capo, the wonderful street market in Palermo, Sicily, and dipping in and out of hundreds of churches hidden in the labyrinth of
Palermo streets, we stopped at a local cafe.
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| Olives, Palermo, Sicily |
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It was wonderful to see the mounds of olives in the market having seen endless olive groves on our journey across the country.
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| Olive trees, Sicily |
In need of something light and refreshing that wasn’t gelato, we were
taken with the bowls of orange salad.
The day before we had had the most
delicious lemon jelly with the Countess of Butera28 the 18th century Palermo
Palazzo where we were staying.
http://www.butera28.it/butera28.php
The Palazzo is the home of the Lampedusa family and overlooks the
seafront in the historic Kalsa quarter. The family have apartments in
the Palazzo to rent, each is uniquely furnished and offers a
wonderful base from which you can discover the city.
Nicoletta, the Countess, also offers cooking courses, which interested me. Unfortunately I didn't have time this trip, as we weren't in Sicily for long enough but Nicoletta showed us around the beautiful palazzo, the tiled kitchens, and treated us to a delicious bowl of local lemon jelly decorated with jasmine from her garden.
We hadn't had much citrus fruit in the South of Sicily so we were enjoying the change form all the almonds!
Anyway back to the cafe..
It was literally a few tables on the side on a
piazza with no formal cafe just a small cucina,
yet it was packed.
We opted for the fresh orange and olive salad, crispy
potato and mint fritters, the traditional chick pea panelle and the tomato,
onion and mackerel salad, all served on paper plates quickly by friendly local
Sicilian waiters.
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| Sicilian lunch |
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| Orange and olive salad |
It was delicious.
The orange salad was so refreshing.
So simple.
So easy to do at home!
So,
A week later,
on a sunny day here in England, we sat in the garden and had my version of the
Sicilian insalata di arance.
It was delicious and brought back happy memories of
lunch in Palermo.
ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
Feeds
4
PREPARATION TIME
Under 5 minutes- for cutting up the oranges and
onion.
INGREDIENTS:
4 Oranges -chilled
1 small red onion
2 handfuls of green olives
Splash of olive oil
WHAT TO DO:
1. Peel
the oranges and cut into small slices and lay on a dish with any juice from
cutting.
2. Finely slice a small onion- the finer the
better. Scatter over the orange pieces
3. Add the olives....and a splash of olive oil.
4. It’s
ready to serve. The colder the better.
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| Orange and olive salad |
This
is a great summer salad.
Ideal
with a BBQ or for a picnic.
Its
simplicity and freshness of flavours makes it so refreshing and different.
Give
it a try you won’t be disappointed.
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