Recipe: Ottolenghi’s Fig Salad With Radicchio and Hazelnuts
Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin © 2014
Serves 4 as a starter
2 small red onions (7 ounces)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup hazelnuts, with skin
2 ounces radicchio leaves, roughly torn
1 1/3 cups basil leaves
1 1/3 cups watercress leaves
6 large ripe figs (10½ ounces)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and black pepper
1) Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
2) Peel the onions, halve lengthwise and cut each half into wedges 1¼ inches wide. Mix together the wedges with 1½ teaspoons of the olive oil, a pinch of salt, and some black pepper, and spread out on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring once or twice during cooking, until the onion is soft and golden and turning crispy in parts. Remove and set aside to cool before pulling the onions apart with your hands into bite-size chunks.
3) Turn down the oven temperature to 325 F. Scatter the hazelnuts in a small roasting pan, and toast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and, when cool enough to handle, roughly crush with the flat side of a large knife. Assemble the salad on 4 individual plates. Mix the radicchio, basil and watercress together and place a few on the bottom of each plate. Cut the figs lengthwise into 4 or 6 pieces. Place a few fig pieces and some roasted onion on the leaves. Top with more leaves and continue with the remaining fig and onion. You want to build up the salad into a small pyramid.
4) In a small cup, whisk together the remaining 2½ tablespoons olive oil, the vinegar and cinnamon with a pinch of salt and some black pepper. Drizzle this over the salad, finish with the hazelnuts and serve.
Reprinted with permission from Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi, copyright © 2014. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC.
“Plenty More” is available for purchase through online booksellers such as Powells.com and IndieBound.org.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
