Arugula, Fennel, and Parmesan Salad

January 8, 2009

This is the salad I made for my Christmas Feast.  It is quite simply but surprisingly tasty.  This makes enough for four small salads.

You’ll need approximately three cups of arugula (you’ll probably find it either in bunches at the supermarket or plastic bins), one fennel bulb, about a 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, shaved into large, thin slices with a vegetable peeler, and a 1/2 cup of lemon-shallot vinaigrette.

Obviously you need to wash the arugula and shave the Parmesan.  The only tricky part is cutting the fennel into thin slices.  It is sort of like an onion in that it is made up of layers, but it isn’t quite as uniform.  I first cut off the fronds and green stalks.  Then I cut the bulb in half from top to bottom, and then the halves in half again, so I ended up with four wedges.  I started cutting down along one of the flat sides of a wedge (like I was shredding cabbage), but realized the bottom of the fennel had a core sort of thing that was holding some of the pieces together.  I cut/pulled off the core pieces and continued cutting the wedges into thing slices.

All that remains is tossing together the fennel, arugula and Parmesan and drizzling some vinaigrette over the top.

Tips

• The vinaigrette tempers the anise flavor of the fennel substantially.
• I didn’t like the taste of fennel by itself, but it was good in the salad.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• About 3 cups of arugula, washed
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shaved into large, thin pieces with a vegetable peeler
• 1/2 cup lemon-shallot vinaigrette

Recipe:

1. Toss together ingredients in a large bowl.

This recipe is adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

Posted in Recipes |