Greens Add Bitterness to Sweet Citrus Salad ALL winter, I make citrus salads that cleave, for the most part, to the same basic formula. I cover a platter with sliced oranges, tangerines or grapefruit, or a combination of the three, and scatter olives or capers and a few thinly sliced red onions over the top. Olive oil, red pepper flakes and sea salt complete the picture. I can throw it together in six minutes flat. It's exuberantly juicy, sweet and spicy, the perfect thing to cut through the meaty richness of all those wintry braises and roasts. This year, spring sprung early and hot. On a recent warmish evening, during what was still technically winter, I had a pink grapefruit on the counter, waiting to be sliced into salad. But the cold-weather incarnation seemed off. I craved something that felt like spring. Traditionally, spring salads contain sharp, bitter greens. Adding some to my grapefruit would bring out the citrus's own bitterness, I hoped, in a pleasingly bracing way. This yen required a trip to the store. There, I chose radicchio, whose rosy shade matched my grapefruit. Since I seemed to be cooking by color, I picked up some pistachios. I could picture a salad in vibrant shades of pink, the purple-and-green-hued nuts dotting its surface. I also bought some shallots (more pink, and an onion tang) and dates (brown, but I wanted to add a condensed sweetness to contrast with all the bitterness). Once home, I peeled the grapefruit, using a technique in which you slice off the pith and peel together. This is the fastest and cleanest way I know of peeling citrus. You do lose a minuscule amount of the flesh, which clings to the pith. But in exchange you're guaranteed pith-less fruit. Use a sharp paring knife to slice off the top and bottom of the fruit, and stand it up on a flat side. Then slice off strips of rind and pith, exposing the flesh underneath. I like to use a wooden meat carving board for this, which allows the juice to pool in the wells, ready for a straw. I sliced the grapefruit crosswise, into rounds, and fanned them out on the plate like the petals of a flower. I piled the radicchio in the middle of the dish, and sprinkled the nuts on top. The salad took 10 minutes instead of 6, but was stunning to behold and quite satisfying to eat. Which is worth 4 extra minutes - and even a trip to the store.