Date night celery and fennel salad
Share
- ✉
-
Author Notes: Fennel is the perfect hot date night food because -- according to the Oxford Companion to Italian Food – it both calms flatulence and sweetens breath. In this dish, my fennel is romancing tender celery hearts in what I think is a great pairing. - cheese1227
Serves two (of course!)
- 1 fennel bulb, cored and chopped, fronds removed and saved
- 6-8 of the palest stalks of celery hearts (you need about a cup), leaves removed and saved
- A good two tablespoons of fresh tarragon leaves
- Good olive oil
- 1 lemon, halved
- Black pepper
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted and ground into ½ teaspoon fleur de sel
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
- 1 small chunk of parmigiano reggiano, flaked off in slivery chunks
- 1/8 teaspoon celery seed
- Combine chopped fennel and celery in a bowl. Roughly chop fennel leaves, celery leaves and tarragon and add them to the bowl. Add a glug of olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon and a couple of grinds of pepper and celery seed. Stir. Taste and add more lemon if desired.
- Spread the salad on a platter; sprinkle the fennel seeds and salt, pine nuts and cheese over the vegetables. You can serve it immediately, or it holds well at room temperature for well over an hour or so if you and your date are otherwise engaged.
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Celery Recipe
More Great Recipes
Share a Recipe
Enter one of our contests, or share that great thing you made for dinner last night.
Add a Recipe
about 1 year ago cheese1227
Served this with Merrill's http://www.food52.com/recipes....
Pretty great combo!
about 1 year ago gingerroot
This is perfect, I can't wait to make this lovely salad.
about 1 year ago cheese1227
Please let me know how it turns out for you!
about 1 year ago gingerroot
Doubled this last night for dinner and it really WAS perfect! So simple, and so delicious. The fennel seed-fleur de sel is genius as seasoning. I could eat this every night, happily. Thanks for a great recipe!
about 1 year ago EmilyC
I love the combination of flavors here! Nicely done!
about 1 year ago cheese1227
Thank you!
about 1 year ago hardlikearmour
hardlikearmour is a trusted home cook.
I love how fresh this sounds.
about 1 year ago cheese1227
I like how you can buy the ingredients several days ahead and still have it taste fresh when you've got time to make it!
about 1 year ago drbabs
Barbara is a trusted source on General Cooking.
Very delicious. Beats asking us to pull your finger.
about 1 year ago cheese1227
LOL. If I can't bring him to the Food52 level, I guess he can bring us all down to his level. I seriously hear myself saying to him "You know, if you keep doing that at the table, you'll never get a second date."
about 1 year ago aargersi
Abbie is a trusted source on General Cooking.
Both delicious and also full of valuable information! Ha ha!
about 1 year ago cheese1227
What can I say? I live with a 13-year-old boy who is stuck between fart jokes and trying to perfect good table manners so he can get a date.
about 1 year ago fiveandspice
Emily is a trusted source on Scandinavian Cuisine.
Ah, what a stellar age that is for boys! This looks delicious! Very much like a salad I make, except I throw pears in there too. It's making me want to make it tonight, actually!
about 1 year ago cheese1227
Let's hope so!
about 1 year ago boulangere
Cynthia is a trusted source on Bread/Baking.
Celery + fennel sounds like a marriage, pun very much intended, made in heaven.