Fennel is the licorice-flavored vegetable for people who don't like licorice.
It is also, obviously, for people who do.
Fennel can make a believer out of a licoricephobe because it is so mild. It's not like washing down a box of Good & Plenty candy with a shot of sambuca, it's gentle. Easy going. And most important, easy to mix with other flavors.
Fennel is also one of those ingredients that is great hot or cold. When it is heated, it acts as an aromatic, like onions and garlic, imparting its flavor to the dish as a whole. When it is served at room temperature, as in a salad, the flavor is crisper and more contained, though still mellow.
For my dalliance with fennel, I decided to make five dishes, most of them easy and relatively inexpensive.
I began with a pasta dish, Penne With Roasted Fennel and Onions. This was suggested to me by my friend and neighbor Andrea, who also sent me the recipe. Andrea is one of those people who always thought she hated fennel until she was served this dish by her step-mother-in-law. Now she is a believer.
You know how onions become sweeter and richer in flavor when you roast them for a long time? It is the same with fennel. And when you roast onions and fennel together, along with some garlic, you get an exquisitely mellow_ but magnificently flavored _sauce for pasta.
Don't forget to sprinkle it with parmesan cheese at the end. The crisp bite of salty cheese provides the perfect counterpoint to the warmth of the slow-cooked vegetables.
I next whipped out a quick hors d'oeuvre that is almost the exact opposite of the pasta dish _ except it uses most of the same ingredients. In this version, the dish is cool, not hot; the fennel is fresh, not cooked; the flavors are sharp, not muddled; and it can be made in just five minutes.
Sliced Fennel with Parmesan is a delightful little nibble that comes to us from Martha Stewart, who is always at her best with appetizers. It couldn't be simpler: Slice a fennel bulb into thin wedges, drizzle with a few drops of olive oil (now is the time to use the good stuff), add thin slices of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and top with flaky salt, pepper and a piece of the fennel frond.
Even more than with the pasta, the cheese is vital in this dish. Parmesan and fennel turn out to go together like chicken and rosemary.
The next dish I made combines fennel with chicken and rosemary. And it was great.
Sauteed Chicken Breasts With Fennel and Rosemary takes advantage of the fact that fennel is a natural accompaniment to Mediterranean flavors. Put olive oil, garlic, rosemary and fennel on anything and you've got a satisfying, flavorful meal _ especially if the anything you put it on is chicken or lamb.
For this dish, the fennel is cooked (with a lot of rosemary) until it is soft and sweet. Then the chicken is sauteed (with a lot of rosemary) until it is nearly cooked. Finally, the two parts of the dish _ the fennel and the chicken _ are brought back together in the same pan to make a wonderful meal.
Mediterranean flavors are also at the heart of my next dish, Broiled Striped Bass With Tomatoes and Fennel. With the right seasonings, fish goes even better with fennel than chicken or lamb.
The seasonings in this case are garlic, oregano, olive oil and lemon, with tomatoes and briny olives for an extra kick. Cooked together with a striped bass, it is a dish worthy of a warm summer night in Santorini.
But my local fishmonger did not have striped bass, so I had to make do with barramundi instead. The two fish are not particularly interchangeable, but they both have a relatively firm flesh and a mild taste. It turns out that that is all you need, because this entree was amazing. The fish took to fennel as it would to water, only the garlicky, lemony, salty sauce is far better than water could be.
For my last dish, I just added raw fennel to an old favorite, chicken salad with apples. The fennel adds just a little crunch and just a hint of flavor.
The real standout in this dish, which is called Apple-Fennel Chicken Salad, is the lemon. A few squeezes of lemon make the whole salad taste bright, especially when some zest is thrown in for good measure.
To be honest, I didn't like the zest at first; I thought it made the salad too bitter. But after I refrigerated it overnight, the zest had lost its edge and brought with it only a clean, lemon flavor.
Try it on whole-wheat toast. You won't be sorry.
