Buffalo mozzarella salad with walnut vinaigrette

This clean-flavoured summer entrée recipe from the book is easy to make, but be sure that the figs are ripe, as their sweetness is needed to balance the flavours.

Salad

4	Beetroot, large
2 Tbsp	Olive oil
1	Salt, to season
2	Oranges
150 g	Sugar
200 ml	Water
250 g	Buffalo mozzarella (Main)
1 handful	Watercress
6	Figs, cut in half

Walnut vinaigrette

50 g	Walnuts, freshly chopped (Main)
80 ml	Olive oil
50 ml	Walnut oil
40 ml	Chardonnay vinegar
1 Tbsp	Chives, chopped
1	Salt, to season

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Wash the beetroot and cut off the tops. Rub in some olive oil, season with salt and wrap each one in tinfoil. Make 4 small piles of salt on a baking tray and sit the beetroot on top. Bake in the oven for about an hour or until a skewer goes through to the centre easily. Allow to cool. Unwrap the beetroot, peel and slice thinly. Use a 5cm cutter to stamp out discs from the slices, then put aside.
2. Peel the zest from the oranges and cut into strips. Place these strips in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. As soon as the water is boiling, drain and repeat the process twice to extract any bitterness from the skin. Put the sugar into a small saucepan, add 200ml of water and bring to the boil. Add the orange strips and cook over a gentle heat until tender. Use a sharp knife to peel the pith from the oranges, then cut the flesh into segments.
3. Make the vinaigrette by mixing all the ingredients.
4. To serve, lay the beetroot slices slightly overlapping in the middle of a plate. Cut the mozzarella into even slices and place a slice in the centre of each beetroot slice. Arrange the fig halves, orange segments, orange strips and watercress around the mozzarella and drizzle with walnut vinaigrette and fig vincotto.