Articles Tagged with “Fennel”

06/04/2008: Tagliatelle with Fennel and Asparagus

It is nearly asparagus season in the UK (although you can buy imported asparagus all year round). Here’s a recipe I made up tonight…

Ingredients

• 250 g saffron tagliatelle, or plain tagliatelle
• 10 asparagus spears
• ¼ fennel bulb, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp fennel pesto
• lemon-infused olive oil, or plain olive oil
• zest of 1 lemon, or 2 lemons if using plain olive oil
• 1 tsp saffron, if using plain tagliatelle
• 30 g butter
• salt

Method

Boil the asparagus and tagliatelle in separate saucepans of salted water. The asparagus will take about 5 minutes. The tagliatelle may take from 3 minutes to 10 minutes, so consult the packaging. You want to time things so that the tagliatelle finishes cooking about 5–6 minutes after the asparagus.

When the asparagus is nearly cooked, heat the butter and a generous glug of olive oil in a griddle pan. Drain the asparagus and add it with the fennel to the griddle pan.

When the pasta is cooked,…

09/03/2008: Monkfish with Pancetta, Fennel & Saffron

Here’s a recipe I’ve reverse engineered after having eaten it at the Jolly Sportsman last month.

Ingredients

• 2 monkfish fillets
• 8 slices pancetta
• 2 medium potatoes
• ¼ savoy cabbage
• ½ bulb fennel
• ½ tsp ground saffron
• 30g butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 100 mL milk
• 100 mL chicken or vegetable stock (optional)

If monkfish is not available, any other white fish will make a reasonable substitute. Haddock works well. What is important is that the fillet must be long and thin, with a cross-sectional area of about a square inch (say, 2 cm by 3 cm), and should be boneless.

Method

Clean the fennel and slice very finely. Heat about a quarter of the butter and a tablespoon of the oil in a small frying pan, and sauté the fennel until it starts to brown. Stir in the saffron, then add the stock, or a little salted water. While the other parts of the meal are cooking, keep an eye on the…

26/01/2008: Fennel, Sausage and Bean Casserole

This recipe is ideally made with plain pork sausages, or pork & leek. Try to avoid overly seasoned sausages. If peeling the tomatoes is too much bother, using half a tin of tomatoes would probably work fine.

Ingredients

• 4 Sausages
• 2 × 440g tins of cannellini beans, drained
• ¼–¾ bulb of fennel
• 4 medium tomatoes
• 300 mL chicken stock
• olive oil

Method

Submerge the tomatoes in boiling water. Simmer until their skins split. Remove the tomatoes from the pan and run under cold water. Peel their skins off and chop the tomatoes.

Grate the fennel with a cheese grater, or chop very finely.

Chop each sausage into 6–8 segments. The skin may tear or come loose — discard any loose bits of sausage skin.

In a casserole dish, heat a generous amount of olive oil. Fry the chopped sausages, stirring continuously to prevent them from sticking. Cook for 5–10 minutes, until they are browned.

Add the beans, tomatoes, fennel and stock. Stir until well mixed. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

Serve with focaccia or a similar bread.