I love Italian food. Well, except for all the cured meats. I like those ok, as long as they aren’t too fatty, but I get tired of them pretty fast. But I get tired of cured meats at home too.

Since I generally eat on a daily basis, I figure I might as well jump right in and try a few recipes. The first one I tried is an orange and fennel salad. The cook in Tuscany made this for us, and I thought it was so refreshing and delicious. So, I looked up a few recipes and combined that with what I remembered. So, here is the final version:

Orange and Fennel Salad

Arrange in the bottom of a large, shallow dish, in order:
A large bunch of watercress, the leaves pulled or, if you are lazy like me, chopped
1 head of purple endive, chopped
1 fennel bulb, cut in half and then each half sliced thinly
2-3 oranges, the peel cut off and the fruit sliced
1 large avocado, sliced
Cut up bits of the fennel tops, for garnish

It looks so pretty! Then, sprinkle on the juice of one large lemon, and about 2-3 T. nice quality extra virgin olive oil. Crack on some fresh pepper, and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve up immediately!

Here is another simple, yet delicious recipe. It turned out great, and was so easy!

1 lb strawberries, sliced thinly
2 tsp. Sugar
1 T. plus 1 tsp. very good quality balsamic vinegar

Just cut the washed strawberries into a bowl. Then add the sugar and vinegar. This will only work if you have very high quality balsamic vinegar! We splurged and bought a very nice and not inexpensive bottle of balsamic from an Italian import store in Salt Lake. You only use a tiny bit at a time, so it should last us a long while!

Give the strawberries a good stir and let them sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.

Then, layer the strawberries, spooning out some sauce sauce as well, between some vanilla ice cream. We generally try to support our local dairy, which is not difficult to do, since they make the most delicious ice cream available in the state. And maybe anywhere. Except for the gelato in Italy, of course. This was very delicious and so easy. I will definitely make this again.

Hooray for simple and delicious!