Pasta con crema di finocchi - Pasta with Fennel Cream

The Florence Fennel seeds from NewWorld Supermarket's Little Gardener have grown into big long fennels, not the round fat fennels unfortunately. So I decided to pick them before they became too tall and create something with them. I washed them, removed the leaves and cooked them with a tbs of butter and a little light vegetable stock until they were tender, and then I added another tbs of butter I blended them into a cream which I used to dress pasta with. It was delicious! I have a couple more fennels in the garden and this will be their destiny too! 

PS: The leaves are just for decoration

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Florence fennel and asparagus with smoked scamorza

Great shopping yesterday at the Mercatino di Natale (Italian Christmas Market), and look at the beautiful vegetables from Aldo! I made pasta with eggplants last night, and I am planning a parmigiana for the rest (I have plenty and I love eggplants!)

Today I made asparagus (which I had already) and Florence fennels with smoked scamorza (from Il Casaro). To prepare the vegetables: I washed and quartered the fennel bulbs and passed them in butter, then I added a ladle of vegetable stock and cooked them slowly slowly, with the lid on, until soft. I used some of their juice to steam a bunch of asparagus, and then I cut the scamorza and put it on the hot pan for a couple of minutes, turning them after one minutes, just to soften and sizzle (but not melt). Serve with crusty bread!

And now for something completely different:

my soft cane orchids are in flowers! I had to share the photos :-). 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Florence Fennel and avocado salad with walnuts

This is a lovely salad and also a light main, filling, nutritious and full of different textures and flavours!

For two serving use:
1 medium Florence fennel, sliced
1 avocado, sliced
1 small carrot, grated
A little red cabbage, finely chopped (this is mostly to add a dash of colour, red radicchio would work well too!)
8-10 walnut kernels, crushed
A few drops of lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste (optional)

Usually I just put the lemon juice on the avocado and the carrots only, and then assemble the salad, and it taste great even without salt or olive oil (avocado and walnuts are full of good fats anyway).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Florence Fennels Cooked in Milk

I don't do it often, but to cook Florence fennels in milk is a very Italian method, not really used much overseas (or at least, I haven't noticed it!). The fennels seem to acquire a really special taste when cooked in milk, and after this first 'stage' they are usually baked in the oven or placed under the grill, with or without toppings. A big tray would have several fennels, but becasue I only had three fennels I decided to add some lasagna sheets to make sure that they would not 'dry up' too much in the second cooking stage in oven. 

Fennels Cooked in Milk

Wash three Florence fennels and cut like in the photo. 

 Gently (very gently) simmer the fennels in milk (about half a litre) until they are quite tender (about 30 minutes). Watch the pot at all times: the milk may boil out. Lift out the fennels, but keep the milk in the pot.

I didn't want to put the fennels straight into a pan, so I placed three lasagna sheets on the bottom (I used Barilla egg lasagna). Fennels on top, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

I made a sauce with the milk from cooking the fennels, I just added one tbsp of flour and some butter, salt, pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Stir until you have a thin velvety sauce.

 I poured most of the sauce over the fennels and the topped with three more lasagna sheets, which I covered with the remaining white sauce.

  Bake everything at 180°C for about 30 minutes. Serves 3-4 and it is very very yummy.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Green palette from the garden to the table

At least winter in Auckland is ... green. We had lots of rain and veggies in the garden are growing so slowly that I actually think that some have gone to a complete stand-by. So yes, it is more broccolini and bok choy for us, fortunately I also have a few herbs, including chives, and my first Florence fennels. Only two were big enough to pick, certainly bigger than those 'bambino' fennels I see in the supermarkets here in New Zealand, but not as big as the ones I used to get in the markets in Italy. I had to find a way to make them go ... further! So I decided to cook them with bok choy, hoping that the strong fennel taste would take over. 

Go Further Fennels

Surprisingly enough it worked! I washed and cut the 2 fennels and 1 bok choy and cook them in a pan with just a little butter, then I added some vegetable stock, covered them with a lid and let them simmer on very low for quite a long time. About one hour. Slow cooking is best with fennel (unless you eat them raw), they have to become really really soft, and the bok choy kind of took in the good flavours too. 

 Fusilli with Chive Sauce

I like cooking fusilli with chive sauce, this is an example. Just chives, feta, maybe a few nuts, cooking water from the pasta, and olive oil. If the feta is salty you don't need to add salt. Chop the chives before placing them in the blender or food processor with the other ingredients: if you leave them long they will take forever to blend. To top the pasta I used a few broccolini quickly cooked in a pan with garlic, salt and olive oil. A simple but filling lunch, and then back into the green bush.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Lentil Ravioli with Fennel Butter, and Summer in Auckland

Happy New Year to all! The weather has been lovely here in Auckland, and there are so many good places to go. Yesterday we went to Takapuna beach in the North Shore:

For Xmas we stayed on our West side, where the sand is black and the beaches are dramatically beautiful and wild:

Green walks in the Waitakere Ranges,

And bright red Pohutukawa flowers, the New Zealand Xmas flowers.

Today we went to see the qualifyings for the ASB Classic Tennis. We watched Italian Alberta Brianti play against Elena Bovina from Russia. So strange, I don't feel very Italian at times, and yet, when there is a sporting event all of a sudden my heart starts skipping. It felt like there was my own sister there playing on the courts, and I was really happy when Brianti won. Great match!

Lunch was a picnic in the park. Quite novel for us, who live in the bush, to go and have a picnic in the city! It was lovely :-)

And now to the ravioli! I made some flower pasta (recipe here), I used roses, borage and nasturtiums. I cooked some brown lentils, then I passed them in a pot with olive oil, a shallot and salt. I used them as filling.

Possibly herbs would have been better: the lentil filling is quite dark, so the petals were not so visible. I'll remember this next time :-)! For the sauce I cooked some baby fennels very slowly with butter and a little water. I added more butter, and just a pinch of salt at the end.

The fennel butter matched the lentil filling beautifully. A great dish for New Year (FYI, in Italy it is traditional to eat lentils for New Year). The borage flowers are decorations, but they too can be eaten, and we did!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A Recipe Against Homophobia

A blogger from Italy is proposing this great initiative against homophobia, following some rude comments and jokes by our Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

To support the initiative bloggers are asked to provide a recipe with Florence Fennel (recycle OK), for more info click here.

Thank you Gaia for the initiative :-)

Salad with Red Radicchio, Florence Fennel

and Walnut

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A lovely and crisply salad made with fresh mixed leaves and red radicchio (the round type, which is crispy and lovely to eat raw). I find red radicchio a bit bitter, this is why I like to mix it with other green leaves. Then I added some finely cut Florence fennel, and some freshly shelled walnuts. For dressing I just used some good extra virgin olive oil, some lemon juice and some salt.

Non-vegan option: I had some salad left over and I made a mega panino using crusty ciabatta bread, this salad (without dressing) and some gorgonzola cheese. It was super!!!!

Red Radicchio, Florence Fennel and Walnut Salad

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini©

A lovely and crisply salad made with fresh mixed leaves and red radicchio (the round type, which is crispy and lovely to eat raw). I find red radicchio a bit bitter, this is why I like to mix it with other green leaves. Then I added some finely cut Florence fennel, and some freshly shelled walnuts. For dressing I just used some good extra virgin olive oil, some lemon juice and some salt.

Also, I had some salad left over and I made a mega panino using crusty ciabatta bread, this salad (without dressing) and some gorgonzola cheese. It was super!!!!