A crunchy apple, fennel, and celeriac salad and an update on our progress learning Italian.

Plus, a bit of This & That.

Apple, Fennel, and Celeriac Salad

We've fallen in love with a local farmer named Paolo, who consistently has the most beautiful and flavorful produce at the Thursday market in Castelnuovo Don Bosco. It's been challenging to find super crunchy apples like the Fujis we would always eat back home, but we finally spotted Paolo's delicious, sweet, and crunchy Fujis and Pink Lady apples this past week, and they did not disappoint. I also love that once he saw us looking at them, he grabbed one, cut it, and handed half an apple to each of us to try. Molto buono! We also snapped up some gorgeous fennel and some of his earthy celeriac (also known as celery root), so I combined all these ingredients into a bright, crunchy, sweet, and tangy salad for lunch on Tuesday. While it does take some time to prep everything into matchsticks, I promise it's worth it.

APPLE, FENNEL, AND CELERIAC SALAD

Makes 2 entree or 4 appetizer portions

• 2 cups celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 1/8" matchsticks

• 2 cups fennel, ends trimmed, cored, and cut into thin matchstick-like strips

• 2 cups Pink Lady apple, cut into 1/8" matchsticks

• 1/2 cup Pecorino Toscano, cut into 1/8" matchsticks (you can use Manchego as a substitute if you can’t get your hands on Pecorino Toscano)

• 1 tablespoon fennel fronds, roughly chopped

• 1 handful toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• Flakey sea salt

• Freshly cracked black pepper

APPLE CIDER VINAIGRETTE

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon shallot, minced

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• Freshly cracked black pepper

First, prepare the vinaigrette. In a bowl, combine the vinegar, shallot, mustard, maple syrup, and sea salt. Slowly whisk in the extra virgin olive oil. Finish with a little freshly cracked black pepper. Set aside.

Place the celery root, fennel, apple, and Pecorino Toscano into a medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle in 1/2 of the fennel fronds and 1/2 of the walnuts. Drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the salad and toss to coat. Taste. Add more vinaigrette as needed (you will have dressing left over). Season with flakey sea salt and black pepper. Gently toss to combine.

Divide the salad between two individual salad bowls. Top with the remaining fennel fronds and walnuts. Finish with freshly cracked black pepper and flakey sea salt.

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Learning a new language is hard.

Living in a place where you don't speak the language and are starting from scratch at 41 years old is one of the biggest challenges I'm facing right now. Everyone always says, "Oh, you'll pick it up so fast! You'll be immersed in it". I can report back that this is not true in my case. When your aging mind is mush from lack of sleep and physical and mental exhaustion from moving your life to another universe, all while trying to parent three kids and run multiple businesses, it doesn't really feel like anything is ever going to sink in.