Simple roast fennel pasta

This is one of my favourite recipes to make when I’m feeling lazy or I’m cooking for one. Apart from chopping a few bits, the oven does all the hard work for you! Once roasted, the strong aniseed flavour mellows and caramelises into a sweet, soft partner to the pasta, jazzed up with a bit of chilli, garlic and lemon. I had a handful of lonely spinach leaves which I added this time around, use this recipe as a base to add or remove bits as your fridge allows. Let me know where this recipe takes you.

Ingredients

  • 1 large fennel bulb (or 2 small ones, whatever you have)
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/2 – 1 chilli to taste, finely chopped
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • good olive oil
  • your choice of pasta
  • parmesan

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
  2. Cut your fennel into slices about 1cm thick. Toss into a small roasting dish with the garlic, chilli, a very generous glug of olive oil and about 1/3 cup water.
  3. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 30 minutes or until the fennel is soft.
  4. Remove the foil and cook for a further 40 minutes or so until golden. When the fennel is done, cook your pasta.
  5. Toss the fennel, pasta, zest and juice with an extra lug of oil or two with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle parmesan on top and enjoy!

 

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