Deliciously green with a crisp bite, fennel bulbs are an often overlooked vegetable. Popular in Mediterranean cuisine, fennel is part of the celery family with green, frond-like foliage similar to dill. It just tastes like the color green with a slightly, in my opinion, licorice overtone that really dances on the taste buds when enjoyed raw in a salad.

During the cold winter months, when fennel can be found in the produce aisle, it is a perfect time to enjoy fennel braised, stewed or sautéed as cooking mellows the flavor making fennel a great addition to pasta sauces, soups or stews.

In this sample fennel dish, we oven baked the fennel in a rich, garlic tomato sauce and served it along side roasted chicken with a balsamic vinegar glaze.  The almost buttery slightly bitter (in a good way) flavor of the final dish offsets the richness of the chicken.  While fennel typically has to be blanched or boiled before using it in recipes, this oven-roasted fennel doesn’t require this additional step.

Roasted Fennel in Tomato Sauce
3 fennel bulbs
14 oz tomato sauce
3-4 gloves of garlic, sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Dried basil
Grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, trim fennel stalks and remove core of each fennel bulb, cutting each bulb into 2-3 inch pieces. Place in shallow roasting dish, tossing with a bit of olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. 

Pour over tomato sauce, toss in garlic slices and sprinkle all with 1-2 teaspoons of dried basil. Cover and bake for approximately one hour.

Then, remove cover, test with knife or fork to ensure fennel is tender, and sprinkle over grated cheese, returning to oven uncovered and continue baking until cheese is golden brown.

Serves 4

Copyright 2007.