Grapefruit Salad

My partner Rick is a baker and also a true minimalist: Like Mark, he believes when it comes to cooking, less is more. When he first made me this grapefruit side salad during citrus season, I was kind of taken aback at how simple it is. But especially with beautiful fruit and good olive oil, it’s revelatory. — Melissa

Makes: 2 servings
Time: About 15 minutes

Ingredients

• Two large grapefruits (the red ones are nice, but this recipe will work with any variety)

• Salt

• Olive oil

• Freshly ground (coarse) black pepper or dried hot red pepper

Instructions

1. Peel and cut the grapefruit into supremes. If you know how to do this, skip this next part.

2. Peel the grapefruits by cutting off the tops and bottoms, set flat on a cutting board, and cut away all of the peel and pith without removing any flesh with a knife following the contours of the fruit.  With practice and a sharp knife, you should be able to have a perfectly round, peeled grapefruit with a slightly flat top and bottom with no traces of white pith.  Cut off any white pith that may remain.  

3. Hold the grapefruit in your non-dominant hand over a bowl to collect any juice that will run out in the process. Using the same knife, cut supremes from the grapefruit by cutting in between the membranes.  You should be able to get relatively even half-moon segments of fruit with no pith and no membrane.   

4. Place the segments into a dry bowl.  Squeeze the fleshy grapefruit mass in your hand into another bowl to extract all of the juice that’s left into the original bowl.  Drink the juice or save it for another use.  

5. Place your mostly dry grapefruit segments on a plate and dress with the best olive oil you can get.  Season with salt and either black or red pepper.  

— Recipe from Rick Easton of Bread and Salt Bakery (Photo: Johnny Fogg)