Penguin Random House has shared the recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Winter salad with sweet roasted onions, crushed hazelnuts and Barolo dressing from Jamie Cooks Italy!

Jamie Cooks Italy is a celebration of the joy of Italian food. Jamie wants to share his love of all things Italian with accessible, best-ever recipes for Classic Carbonara, Salina Chicken, Stuffed Focaccia, Baked Risotto Pie, Pot- Roasted Cauliflower and Limoncello Tiramisu. This is about bringing the pleasure and passion of the world’s favourite cuisine to your kitchen at home.

Featuring 140 recipes in Jamie’s easy-to-follow style, the book has chapters on Antipasti, Salad, Soup, Meat, Pasta, Fish, Rice and Dumplings, Bread and Pastry, Sides, Desserts and all the Basics you need.

The recipes are a mix of fast- and slow-cooking, familiar classics with a Jamie twist, simple everyday dishes and more indulgent labour-of-love choices for weekends and celebrations. Whether cooking for yourself or cooking for friends and family, the aromas and tastes will transport you straight to the landscapes of Italy. Viva Italia!

Winter salad

Sweet roasted onions, crushed hazelnuts and Barolo dressing

Learning to enjoy a range of bitter leaves is a really important part of educating your palate and exploring a whole new dimension of flavours. Instead of thinking about bitter as a negative, we riff
off it here by teaming it with the sweetness of roasted onions, the sourness of vinegar and the satisfying crunch of nuts.

Serves 6 to 12
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes, plus cooling

Indredients

• 6 red onions
• 1 bulb of garlic
• ½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g)
• 100g blanched hazelnuts
• olive oil
• 600g mixed bitter leaves, such as chicory, radicchio, Castelfranco, Treviso, dandelions

Dressing

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• extra virgin olive oil
• 50ml Barolo red wine
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Turn the oven on to full whack (​240ºC​). Place the unpeeled onions in a snug-fitting dish and roast for 1 hour, or until soft and slightly burnt. After 30 minutes, halve the garlic bulb across the middle and add to the dish. Toss the thyme sprigs and hazelnuts in a little olive oil and sprinkle over the onions for the last 5 minutes. Remove and leave to cool.

Trim and separate the bitter leaves (I like to take a bit of pride in this and prep each leaf depending on its size – tear up the big ones, leave the little delicate ones whole, you get the idea). For the dressing, squeeze the roasted garlic into a bowl (discarding the skins) and mash well, then mix in the mustard and a pinch of sea salt. Whisking constantly, drizzle in 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, then, still whisking, let the dressing down with the Barolo and vinegar.

Squeeze the sweet onions out of their crispy skins into a serving bowl, breaking them up a bit as you go. Season with salt and black pepper, then drizzle over the dressing. Top with the bitter leaves, tossing with your fingertips until beautifully dressed. Crush the hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar until fairly fine, then scatter over the salad.

CALORIES 306kcal
FAT 24g
SAT FAT 2.8g
PROTEIN 5.3g
CARBS 18.4g
SUGAR 11.5g
SALT 0.8g
FIBRE 5.3g

Jamie Cooks Italy by Jamie Oliver, photography by David Loftus, is published by Penguin Random House © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2018 Jamie Cooks Italy), photography: David Loftus

Categories Cookery International Non-fiction

Tags Jamie Cooks Italy Jamie Oliver Penguin Random House SA Recipes