If you are new to the fennel game, welcome. I have been told that fennel is an acquired taste. This was news to me because I suppose I acquired it quite young, and when I say acquired, I mean acquired with a passion. When I eat it raw, people look at me like I'm taking a bite out of a raw onion, but the advantage is that no one ever asks to share.
Fennel is a plant originally native to the Mediterranean, and it is a hugely popular vegetable in Italy. It's one of those words I didn't know the English for until much later in life because it was always referred to as finocchio. In Italy it is sliced thinly into salads on a daily basis or eaten torn right off the bulb as a palate-cleanser after dinner, as was the case at my grandparents' and sometimes my dad's house. Italians always serve the salad course after dinner (it has always been strange to me to have salad as an appetizer), but fennel in particular helps with digestion, to the point that the ambitious eaters in my family have been known to eat it specifically to make room for dessert. If you're ever particularly bloated after eating too much at dinner, try some fennel or anise tea!
The seeds are used to make taralli, a sort of savory loop-shaped biscuit that to this day my Zia Pina still bakes in large batches whenever the weather is cold and dry enough. She then distributes the taralli to members of the family in reused flour bags, which my cousins and I used to fight over notoriously. If you've ever been to any of my relatives' houses, you know that if you open a bag of flour in the pantry, there is a 50/50 chance of finding taralli inside.
In the US it is more popularly served cooked, and while I dabble in the occasional roasted fennel, nothing is more refreshing to me than raw fennel. This salad is one my dad made quite often growing up, and we refer to it as winter salad, though you can usually find these ingredients year-round. You could also go the nonna route and swap the pomegranate seeds for some toasted stale bread to make it a panzanella, but the version below is my favorite.
Ingredients
1 bulb of fresh fennel
2+ oranges, blood oranges, or 3-4 clementines, depending on your preferred orange-fennel ratio and the size of the oranges
A couple handfuls of pomegranate seeds
Arugula (optional)
Lemon and olive oil for dressing
Steps
Wash the fennel and cut off the fronds and stalks. TIP: Save the stalks in a freezer bag with other veggie discards for your next vegetable broth!
Cut bulb into quarters and slice each half into thin arc-shaped slices, starting at the top and going down. You can use your knife to cut out the hard core at the base, but I wait to cut it off until I've sliced most of the bulb since it helps hold the pieces together.
Peel the orange and slice the way you like it. I don't make this salad in a very fancy way so I just peel it into its natural segments/wedges, but you could also peel it deeper with a vegetable peeler and slice into rounds.
Mix together orange, fennel, and arugula if using in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice to taste, and sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top.
Serve with fish, citrus roasted chicken, or after dinner. If you try to serve this as an appetizer, the fennel will jump right off the plate and swim back to Italy. You've been warned.
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