David Tanis Market Cooking

The mildly licorice-scented fennel bulb is delicious raw or cooked, and it has many uses, from salad to soup to antipasto. In Italy, no one is surprised to see fennel at the market, but in the States, it still has a bit of an exotic aura.

Unfortunately, much of the fennel on offer in American supermarkets is well past its prime, even if the frilly fronds are still attached. The root end has turned brown, and the exterior, instead of being a beautiful pale celadon green, has gone dull, white, and stringy. Not at all what you want, and quite disappointing.

Sometimes you can salvage an over-the-hill bulb by peeling away a good deal of the outer layer to reveal a fresher-looking center, but it’s a pity to have to do so. In the best of all worlds, fennel is freshly picked—crisp, sweet, and redolent of anise. Still, the bulb should be good-sized—those tiny, immature picked-too-early embryonic ones tend to be stringy.

Trimming a fennel bulb yields a lot of usable debris. Save frilly fronds to make fritters or for seasoning a pork roast. Use tough stalks to make broth, or place them under a roast in lieu of a metal rack. Slice the bulb crosswise as thinly as possible for salads or cut into wedges for roasting or making gratins.

Fennel al Forno

This is an excellent vegetarian main dish if paired with a pile of sautéed dark leafy greens. But you can also send it to the table alongside a roast chicken or pork loin or some Italian sausages. The fennel is briefly blanched, then baked with mozzarella, Parmesan, and bread crumbs. The flavor is amplified with fennel seed, garlic, crushed red pepper, rosemary, and a little olive oil. Expect raves.

4 medium fennel bulbs (about 2½ pounds), trimmed, a few fronds reserved for garnish

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, or a mixture of parsley and fennel fronds

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove a thin layer of the fennel bulbs’ tough exterior. Cut the fennel crosswise into ¼-inch slices.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fennel and boil for 1 minute, then drain and put it in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking; drain and pat dry. Season the fennel with salt and pepper.

Lightly oil a large baking dish. Layer in the fennel to a depth of 1¼ inches (pushing it down if necessary).

In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, fennel seeds, garlic, chopped rosemary, and crushed red pepper. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of this mixture over the fennel. Sprinkle with the rosemary leaves. Cover with the mozzarella, then sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Drizzle the remaining oil mixture over the top, then sprinkle with the Parmesan. (The dish can be prepared to this point several hours ahead.)

Bake the fennel, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes, until nicely browned. Garnish with the chopped parsley. Makes 6 servings

Fennel, Radish, and Mushroom Salad

For the most divine fennel salad, simply dress very thinly sliced very fresh fennel with salt, lemon juice, and olive oil—basta. This one goes a tiny bit further, adding sliced raw button mushrooms and radishes. If you have somehow acquired a few firm, fresh porcini mushrooms, use them, sliced paper-thin, instead of the cultivated mushrooms for a far more flavorful version.

Put the garlic in a small bowl and add the lemon zest and juice and a little pepper. Whisk in the olive oil.

Put the fennel, mushrooms, and radishes in a salad bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add about three-quarters of the dressing and toss gently. With a vegetable peeler, shave curls of Parmesan over the salad. Garnish with a few arugula and parsley leaves, if you like. Drizzle with the remaining dressing. Makes 4 servings

Note: This salad must be dressed at the very last minute, just before serving, or it will be hopelessly wilted and soggy.

If you get hold of a deeply perfumed white truffle from Italy, shave it over the salad just before serving. That would cost a small fortune, though, so ask a rich aunt or uncle to buy it for you. (Do not, however, substitute truffle oil, which is synthetically produced in a laboratory and not even made from truffles.)

Fennel Frond and Spinach Fritters

An adaptation of my Sicilian friend Angelo’s famous recipe.

Fragrant wild fennel is particularly well loved in Sicily, Turkey, and Greece. It also grows abundantly in temperate climates of North America, notably California, and in Australia, where some consider it an invasive weed. (I wish some wild fennel would invade my neighborhood!) Wild fennel has a much stronger scent (and flavor) than cultivated, and it doesn’t form a bulb.

The best time to gather wild fennel is early spring, when the bright green, tender new fronds begin to appear. Usually the feathery fronds are simmered in water, then chopped for various uses. (The dried seeds and even the pollen are also valued for seasoning all sorts of pastas, soups, fish, and meat.) For these fritters, I use the fronds of cultivated fennel instead. The fritters are silver-dollar size and just right with drinks.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop in the spinach leaves, just to wilt them, then transfer to a colander using a slotted spoon. Rinse the spinach with cool water, drain, and squeeze dry. Add the fennel fronds to the boiling water, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Drain, cool, and lay the fronds on a kitchen towel to dry.

Put the spinach and fennel fronds on a cutting board and finely chop together. With your hands, squeeze out any excess water from the mixture. You should have about 1 cup. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the eggs, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, crushed red pepper, and ground fennel. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix well. Add some more bread crumbs if the mixture doesn’t hold together. Form into 24 small (2-inch-diameter) patties.

Pour olive oil to a 1-inch depth into a large cast-iron skillet and heat to 350 degrees. Working in batches, fry the fennel patties, turning once, until golden, about 3 minutes per side. Remove and blot briefly on paper towels. Serve warm, sprinkled with a little salt. Makes 24 fritters