French Fruit Salad

Ingredients

• 2 oranges
• 3 bananas
• 225 g Malaga grapes
• 12 English walnut meats
• 1 head lettuce
• French Dressing

Method

Segment the oranges over a bowl to catch the juice — cut away the pith and membrane with a sharp knife, then work each segment free from its white skin. This knife-skills step matters because the pith is bitter and the membrane bruises the flesh. Reserve the juice for the dressing. Peel the bananas and slice them at 6 mm on the bias; the angle exposes more surface area and catches the dressing better than straight cuts.

Halve the grapes lengthways and remove the seeds with the tip of a paring knife. You're after clean halves without flesh damage — the skin stays intact, which prevents the grapes weeping into the salad and turning the leaves soggy. Crack the walnuts by hand and break each piece into roughly 3 cm shards. Toasted nuts would overpower the delicate fruit here, so leave them raw; the texture contrast is the point.

Arrange the lettuce leaves on the serving plate first — they act as both bed and edible vessel. Dress the orange, banana, grape and walnut components in a separate bowl with a measured pour of French dressing (roughly 2 tablespoons per 350 g of fruit), toss gently for 30 seconds, then transfer the mixture onto the lettuce leaves. The acid in the dressing denatures the fruit's cell walls just enough to marry the flavours without turning everything into pulp. This salad is eaten within 10 minutes — the salad breaks down after that.

Serve at room temperature. The original Boston recipe calls for chilled service, but the fruit's natural sugars and volatile compounds flatten below 12°C; room temperature releases the flavour properly. If you've made the dressing with walnut oil rather than olive, it will have begun to solidify in a cold salad — another reason to skip the ice bath.