Apple Salad Recipe From Rome

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This apple salad recipe is called Insalata di mele alla romana in Italian.
When I learned this apple salad recipe I was told it had its origin in Rome, the modern town, not old Rome. I love its simplicity and its deliciously natural taste and I hope you will too.
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The first time I prepared this apple salad myself I thought it would be very difficult to blend the tastes of the apples and the onion, but I had a delightful surprise. The flavors of the two main ingredients recipe fused perfectly.
This apple salad is uniquely refreshing. It's ideal for the hot summer months or whenever you have sweet apples and sweet onions available. It's so surprisingly tasty that it would be a shame that you don't try it right way.
Ingredients for the apple salad recipe 
  • 2 red onions or any onion that is sweet
  • 4 apples of a sweet variety
  • The juice of 1 big or 2 small lemons
  • Salt
For the vinaigrette sauce 
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp umeboshi vinegar or red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • A pinch white pepper
How to prepare this apple salad recipe
Cut the onions into thin slices. Make them as thin as you can, and place them in a colander. Sprinkle the onions with salt and leave aside for about 10 minutes.
If you have access to sweet red onions, they are perfect for this salad, but if not, any sweet onion will do. You could even experiment with scallions, but then you should find a nice way of cutting and presenting them.
Peel the apples and cut them into slices. The apple slices should also be as thin as you can possibly cut them. Put them in a bowl.
Juice one or two lemons, depending on their size, and pour the fresh lemon juice over the apple slices. If you do this immediately after cutting the apple slices they don't turn brown at all, it's really cool.
Now it's time to prepare the vinaigrette salad dressing. Put 6 table spoons of olive oil in a mortar, if you have one in your kitchen, or a bowl. Try to use a fruity extra virgin olive oil if you can. Add 2 tablespoons of umeboshi vinegar.
I know the umeboshi plum vinegar is Japanese, not Mediterranean food, but it goes really well with this apple salad recipe, and it's the one I use whenever I have it in my kitchen. Any other good quality red wine vinegar will do though, and it's certainly more typically Mediterranean.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a pinch of white pepper. Mix well with the mortar pestle, a small wooden spoon or any spoon.
You are now in the presentation phase of the apple salad recipe. First rinse the onions with running water briefly. Place the apple and onion slices in layers in an oval serving dish. First one layer of apple slices, next one layer of onion slices and so on. And every time, you pour a little vinaigrette sauce over the layer.
If you use the umeboshi vinegar the apple salad looks lovely because the vinaigrette takes a red wine color that colors the apples and onions.
That's it; the apple salad is ready to be served. Serve it as an appetizer, as it is done in many Mediterranean countries; after or with the second course, the French way, your inspiration rules.



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