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Roast fig salad with blood orange and radicchio recipe

A beautifully vibrant winter salad of contrasting textures -
A beautifully vibrant winter salad of contrasting textures -

This beautiful salad – full of flavour, and a medley of colours and textures from the hot roasted figs to the creamy, cooling mozzarella – can be swiftly assembled as you share a drink with your guests.

Prep time: 15 minutes | Cooking time: 15 minutes

SERVES

Four but easily scaled up to serve six

INGREDIENTS

For the salad

  • 6 small figs, halved lengthways

  • 1 tbsp butter or olive oil

  • 1 handful of blanched hazelnuts

  • 1 small or ½ medium head of radicchio, leaves separated and halved, if large

  • 1 large or 2 small blood oranges, peeled, pith removed, and segmented

  • 1 handful of olives, any colour (I love the black, wrinkly, salty ones)

  • 300g best-quality mozzarella or burrata, at room temperature

For the honey-rosemary dressing

  • 2 tsp raw honey

  • 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

  • 1 tsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas mark 7.

  2. Place the fig halves cut-side up on a large roasting tray. Top each one with a little butter or olive oil and sea salt, and roast for 12-15 minutes, until tender but not falling apart. Halfway through the roasting time, add the hazelnuts to the tray, keeping an eye on them.

  3. Meanwhile, whisk the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl or shake in a jam jar. Season.

  4. Toss the radicchio leaves with half of the dressing and arrange on a serving platter. Layer over the orange segments and olives, which you can pit and roughly tear as you go. Pull apart the mozzarella or burrata and scatter pieces over the top.

  5. Once the figs are ready and the hazelnuts are going golden, remove from the oven and roughly chop the nuts. Add the hot figs to the salad, scatter the nuts and drizzle over the rest of the dressing. Serve straight away.