Quick and refreshing orange fennel salad with creamy buffalo mozzarella and aromatic rainbow peppercorn scattered on top. Bright and cheerful plate of deliciousness ready to go.
Peel 2 oranges and slice into 0.5 cm rounds. With the remaining 3rd orange, cut in half. Save one half for juice, peel the other half, and slice into 0.5 cm rounds.
Prepare a bowl of ice water.
Trim the top of the fennel bulb. Keep the fronds for later. Cut the fennel in half or quarters depending on size. Using a mandoline, thinly slice fennel. Place shaved fennel into a bowl of ice water to keep the crispness. After finishing shaving fennel, remove from ice water and shake dry.
Place shaved fennel into a mixing bowl and squeeze the juice of half orange over fennel. Add 1 tablespoon of extra olive oil into bowl and add a pinch of sea salt. Mix well so the fennel is nicely coated. Let shaved fennel sit in juices until serving.
Slice buffalo mozzarella into 0.5 cm rounds (or similar thickness to orange slices)
Place 1 tbsp of rainbow pepper into mortar and pestle and grind into a fine powder.
Assembly
Layer a large platter with orange and buffalo mozzarella slices alternately so they are slightly overlapping.
Take shaved fennel fronds from orange juice and extra virgin olive oil mixture and scatter on top.
Sprinkle crushed rainbow pepper and sea salt all over the salad.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil to serve.
Notes
If you can’t find large buffalo mozzarella, you can substitute it for baby bocconcini. No need to slice; pull apart and scatter in between orange slices.
Rainbow pepper can be substituted with cracked black pepper.
Oranges are the more common citrus fruit to pair with fennel, but you can also use other citrus fruits that might be in season at the time. For colour and deeper flavours, try mixing navel oranges with blood oranges or cara cara oranges. For a slightly more tart element, use ruby grapefruit.
To reduce the liquid on the plate, ensure you pat dry the buffalo mozzarella after you remove from the storing liquid.