The Fennel Special
Four recipes to make the most of this firm favourite
Fennel is one of my all time favourite and most used ingredients, but its signature aniseed flavour is notoriously divisive. And I can sort of understand the sceptics — a poorly prepared bit of fennel is fairly a grim prospect.
In my opinion there are two broad pathways to anisey excellence. In raw preparations fennel should be very finely sliced, generously dressed and well seasoned — the greatest stumbling blocks here are bland dressings or thickly sliced fennel.
The second path to greatness lies in the cooking — no matter the method chosen the key here is that the fennel is cooked thoroughly until completely tender. This really mellows and sweetens the bulb, completely transforming the flavour.
I look at preparing fennel similarly to an onion. While their flavours are quite different, both are glorious when rendered buttery soft and caramelised. Both are also delicious when sliced paper-thin and tossed into a great salad. But they’re also both underwhelming to the point of unpleasantness when cooked half-way, still firm and with a flavour that hasn’t mellowed enough to warrant eating thick chunks of it.
Here are some very good recipes to make the most of fennel season — it runs in the UK from July to October.
Caramelised fennel & olive linguine
A mouthwateringly savoury supper. Probably your best best at winning over any sceptics — the caramelised fennel melts into the pasta.
Recipe
Makes 2 portions
1 large fennel, fronds removed & roughly chopped, bulb quartered lengthways & finely sliced (by mandoline or knife)
250g dried linguine pasta
100g mixed pitted olives (halve any very large ones lengthways)
2 tbsp capers, drained
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
Pinch chilli flakes
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 lemon
Parmesan to serve (optional)
Olive oil
Salt
Place a large pan over a medium heat with a good glug of oil. Add the fennel to the pan and stir from time to time until gently caramelised and softened (about 20 mins)
Add the garlic, chilli, fennel seeds and little lemon zest to the pan with the pasta — if the pan is dry add a little more oil. Stir for another 5 mins or so, then stir in the olives and capers
Meanwhile bring a large pan of salted water to a rolling boil. Cook the pasta to al dente and drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water
Stir the pasta into the pan with the fennel and add a good splash of the pasta cooking water. Increase the heat to high and stir vigorously until the sauce clings to the pasta, adding pasta water as needed
Stir in the fennel fronds and add lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve with a little Parmesan, if you like
Roast fennel, potato & lentil salad
A seriously simple whack-it-in-the-oven tray-bake situation, but it comes out so beautifully. I cover the potatoes and fennel while they’re roasting so they steam and cook through, then remove the cover so they caramelise up a dream.
