Brighten Up: Winter Citrus Salad with Shaved Pecorino

Things have been a little slow around the Kittchen recently, what with the new semester starting and all. I've also been cooking weird combinations of leftovers that don't merit a blog post, like an oddly squeaky and chewy goat cheese and pesto sauce with lentils and bulgar wheat. It's been a rough winter.

Not anymore! Taking my inspiration from Mark Bittman, I decided to make a citrus salad tonight so that I could escape the hearty meals that have been weighing me down (literally...my body always goes into hibernation mode in winter) this month.

Winter Citrus Salad with Shaved Pecorino

• One small red grapefruit
• One blood orange
• One clementine
• The juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pecorino Romano cheese
  

1. Using a sharp knife, trim away the peels and piths of your citrus, and cut each fruit into bite-size pieces.





2. Mix the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, honey, and salt together to form your salad dressing, and pour over the citrus salad. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the pecorino over the top of the salad.



It really is easy; this salad took me about five minutes, and it was a delicious substitute (both in taste and in aesthetic) for the heavy dishes I've been stuck with all winter. Although this could probably serve two or three, I ate the whole thing for dinner. Of course.

In case you're not much of a citrus eater, I'll give you a quick rundown of the flavors involved here. The grapefruit adds a sour bite to the salad, while the blood orange adds an earthy sweetness, and the clementine is light and sweet to balance the two. Finally, the salt in the dressing and the cheese moderate the sweet and sour citrus, to create a light but satisfying dish. Enjoy!