yotam ottolenghi is in everyone´s lips since a while. this bitter sweet salad is the first ottolenghi recipe i tried and people are right, this guy is fantastic! i bought his vegetarian book and originally planned to give it away as a christmas present. but holding it in my hands it was impossible to give it away again. everything in this book looks great. i choose this bitter sweet salad because i looked for something special with radicchio, which we unexpectedly harvested in huge amounts.
i changed some things and left out some things due to our harvest and availability, but it seems that i did not destroy the gorgeous balance of the dish. this salad has the perfect composition of bitterness of the radicchio, the pomegranate and a bit as well by the grapefruit i added and the sweetness of an absolute fantastic grapefruit, orange and maple syrup dressing, rounded by creamy ricotta cheese.
and as well, your eyes get spoiled while eating this colorful dish. some years ago i had the idea of eating only colorful things during autumn, as autumn and winter in town may really be a hard and grey time. this year we have rain or snow (in the best case) since weeks and i can´t remember when i saw the sun for the last time. so it is high time to bring some color and happiness to your plate!
2 grapefruits (pink)
60 ml maple syrup
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp rose water
2 hands full roughly chopped radicchio leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
1 hand full red sprouts
150 g ricotta
20 g roasted pine nuts
100 g pomegranate
the first step is to prepare a syrup of grapefruit juice, maple syrup, salt and rose water. therefore you have to filet the grapefruits. the easiest way to do this is firstly cutting off both edges so that you can see the fruit. secondly, start to cut off the peel from one edge to the other, as much that you see the flesh. now you have the grapefruit without the peel and without the white skin so that you can see every single chamber of the fruits wedges. cut along the chamber´s skins and the filets will fall out. catch the juice.
combine the grapefruit juice (should be 110 ml), maple syrup, salt and pour in a sauce pan. bring to a boil and reduce by two thirds. it should become a thick syrup in the end. pass it through a sieve and then add the rose water.
in the meantime wash the radicchio and cut it into 2-3 cm stripes. toss with the olive oil and arrange on two plates. pour over the ricotta. i recommend to divide it in four or five teaspoon sized pieces. arrange the grapefruit filets over the radicchio and ricotta. sprinkle over the syrup, sprouts, roasted pine nuts and pomegranate kernels.
enjoy this extraordinary salad composition!
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2 pink grapefruit
60 ml ahornsirup
prise salz
1/2 tl rosenwasser
2 hände voll grob geschnittene radicchioblätter
1 el olivenöl
1 hand voll rote sprossen
150 g ricotta
20 g geröstete pinienkerne
100g granatapfel
als erstes wird der sirup aus grapefruitsaft, ahornsirup, salz und rosenwasser hergestellt. dazu müssen die grapefruits filetiert wird. das geht am einfachsten indem man zuerst die beiden enden abschneidet und zwar so dick, dass das fruchtfleisch sichtbar wird. dann schneidet man die restliche schale ab, immer von einem abgeschnittenen ende zum anderen, wieder genauso dick wie vorher. nun ist die grapefruit ohne schale und ohne die weiße haut, so dass man jede einzelne fruchtfleischkammer sehen kann. schneide nun an den dünnen häuten zwischen den kammern entlang. die filetierten fruchtspalten fallen heraus. fange dabei den saft der grapefruits auf.
gib den grapefruitssaft (sollten 110 ml sein), den ahornsirup, salz in einen topf, koche alles auf und lass es um ein drittel reduzieren. es sollte am ende eine sirupartige konsistenz entstanden sein. streiche den sirup durch ein sieb und gib dann das rosenwasser dazu.
in der zwischenzeit kann der radicchio gewaschen und in etwa 2-3 cm dicke streifen geschnitten werden. gib das olivenöl darüber und verteile den radicchio auf zwei tellern. setze dann 4-5 teelöffel ricotta auf jeden salat und arrangiere die grapefruit filets auf dem radicchio und dem ricotta. beträufle alles mit dem sirup und gib zum schluss die gerösteten pinienkerne, die roten sprossen und die granatapfelkerne darüber.
und nun viel vergnügen mit dieser außergewöhnlichen salatkomposition!