Fixing the Fancy - Red Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

I often notice that there are some recipes where the ingredients sound fancy but the end product is bland. This often happens with Epicurious recipes, such as the Radicchio, Red Cabbage and Tomatoes with Orange Vinaigrette recipe. I made it because I like radicchio and thought, correctly, that the red salad would be visually appealing, but it was just bitter to taste. Ben played around with it and, in my opinion, fixed it.

NOTE: the cherry tomatoes sliced in half are very important - the acidity and flavour from the escaping juices help balance the bitterness of the radicchio.

1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 small head red cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsps. finely grated fresh orange zest

4 1/2 Tbsps. fresh orange juice

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbsp. sugar, or to taste

1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

2 heads radicchio (3/4 pound total), cored and coarsely chopped

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Chop onion and soak in cold water, to cover, for 15 minutes.
2. Shred cabbage, salt thoroughly and set in colander to sweat excess water. Leave for 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly with running water and quickly dry on paper towel.
3. While onion soaks and cabbage sweats, whisk together mustard, zest, juices, and salt and pepper to taste with sugar. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.
4. Drain onion well and toss together with radicchio, cabbage, tomatoes, and enough dressing to coat. Toss salad and adjust seasoning using sugar, salt and pepper.