Fennel is one of our favorites and tonight we were making fennel baked with stock and parmesan for a side dish.
I always look at the fronds and think they ought to be good for something. I looked around on the Internet and found an idea for making fennel pesto out of them. Chop them up with a little garlic and mix with olive oil and you have a pesto. Sounded like a great idea to me!
Here’s the recipe for the baked fennel.
From Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything”
About 4 side servings
Two fennel bulbs, fronds trimmed and split in half
3 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
1 cup warm stock (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
1/2 to 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Heat the oven to 400 degrees
Put the fennel halves in a pot of salted water and boil for about 10 minutes. Don’t overcook, they should be almost tender.
Put in a ice water bath to stop the cooking and to cool them off so you can slice them.
Slice the fennel thinly.
Use a bit of the butter to butter a small ovenproof dish
Place the fennel in the dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Pour the stock over the fennel
Top with the butter and then the parmesan cheese
Bake for about 30 minutes, until nicely browned.
And for the fennel pesto.
Leafy fronds from a couple fennel bulbs, about a cup.
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of pine nuts or slivered almonds (I omit these, I don’t really like pine nuts).
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Roughly chop the fennel and garlic.
Process it in a food processor with the salt and nutes until smooth
Pour in the olive oil and process until it makes a paste, you may need to scrape down the sides a few times.
Use immediately or freeze in ice cubes for later.
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