Calabrian Christmas salad
Insalata di rinforzo
Valentina Harris
SERVES 4-6
Preparation 10 minutes plus chilling
Cooking 5 minutes
This is a recipe from Calabria and is one of the many dishes served traditionally for Christmas. The base is tasty cauliflower, which can be an ordinary white one, or for a more exciting visual appeal you could choose a brilliant Romanesco, which is emerald green or purple. The other ingredients each add more flavour and punch to the base. The idea is that over a day or so, it can be added to as other suitable ingredients become available and the salad needs to stretch to feed more guests!
1 cauliflower, washed and trimmed carefully
50g black olives, stoned
50g green olives, stoned
50g pickled gherkins, chopped
50g pickled red pepper, chopped
4 salted anchovies, boned and rinsed, cut into thin strips
6-9 tbsp olive oil
½-2 tbsp best-quality red-wine vinegar
sea salt
Boil the cauliflower whole in salted water until just tender, but in no way falling apart, then cool and divide into florets. Place the cauliflower florets in a salad bowl and add the olives, the gherkins and the pickled red pepper. Mix it all together, then add the strips of anchovy and mix again. Dress with plenty of olive oil and a little bit of vinegar. Add salt as necessary and leave the salad to chill for at least an hour before serving.
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