Recipe: Autumnal Fig, Fennel & Orange Salad by Giovanna Eusebi of Eusebi in Glasgow

As a little girl, my Mother’s home had no fridge or freezer and not even a cooker. The majority of the cooking was done outdoors or by the hearth, with branches providing the fuel for the fire. The branches also provided fuel for them in the form of chestnuts. My Grandmother cooked some of them on the fire, and boiled the remainder in their skins and threaded onto garlands to enjoy in later in the depths of winter.

Nothing was bought, everything grown and reared on their land as a community. People were healthy and lived without any conventional medicine. The food was pure. Material wealth had no relevance to living well in their world. What was valued the most was the skills and experience from years of living on the land and understanding exactly what and when nature would provide. Food was shared with families and loved ones without any worry. Whilst it may have been scarce, but this simply meant that each meal was truly savoured and enjoyed together.

The biggest extravagance in the colder months was the yearly killing of a pig. Every part of the animal was used. Its hind legs preserved in salt and pressed. Its lean meat and fat cut into tiny pieces by hand and then flavoured with crushed coriander seeds, and chilli before being made into sausages. The skins sausages were made of the intestines from the animal. The sausage was hung, dried and preserved in fat. The fat of the animal was heated and then rendered down and then poured into terracotta jugs to be used for the year ahead. The fat was also spread onto bread, almost like butter. This would often be eaten with olives freshly picked, each one crushed by hand, using a stone, then covered in salt for 4 days and washed before being stored in jars. The ‘soffrito’ - heart, lungs, and kidney chopped and cooked with onion and bottled tomatoes, saved from the summer harvest.

There were no supermarkets for people to be able to buy ingredients from and no storage facilities like freezers. My Grandmother and great Grandmother were constantly thinking ahead of how to best preserve food to see them through harder times. At the restaurant, we change the menu to reflect the seasons, as we want to respect the food that nature gives us throughout the year. In summer, I love nothing better than a fresh tomato salad using incredible locally grown tomatoes with some simple sea salt and olive oil. In winter, it’s about warming rich dishes like slow-cooked beans that fill your belly and stick to your ribs. Nothing defines what you eat like the seasons and who you’re eating with.

Autumnal Fig, Fennel & Orange Salad

This is a super easy recipe but as with all cooking, it relies on using the very best ingredients. Use the softest, ripest figs and the sweetest little oranges you can get your hands on. To make this dish vegan-friendly, just swap out the honey for a little sugar.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the orange blossom dressing:

1 orange, zest and juice

5-10ml orange blossom water

30ml extra virgin olive oil

10g honey (substitute with sugar for a vegan-friendly recipe)

5ml white vinegar

For the salad:

8 fresh ripe figs, quartered

1 bulb of fennel, cut finely (preferably on a mandolin)

1 orange, segmented

1/2 radicchio lettuce, leaves washed and roughly chopped

1/2 chicory lettuce, leaves washed and roughly chopped

To garnish:

Pistachios, crushed

Edible flowers

Method:

1. First, make the dressing. Add all the salad dressing ingredients to a glass jar and shake until emulsified. Add 5ml of the orange blossom water to start with to allow you to adjust it to your own preference. Taste the dressing and then add a little more until you can just taste a hint of orange blossom in the dressing.

2. To assemble the salad, there is no exact science! Arrange the fennel, lettuce leaves, figs and orange segments in a large bowl or over 4 individual plates. Pour over the dressing just before serving and dress with the crushed pistachio or edible flowers.