Cynthia Ferich

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Flavors of Fennel “Finocchio”

July 8, 2011 By Cynthia Ferich

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After posting this week’s salad recipe “That’s Italian!”, a friend emailed me and asked, “how do you prepare fennel?”  It seems to be one of those veggies that we have seen in the market, or have read in a list of ingredients, and perhaps a little unfamiliar to the palate?  Well, following her question, I thought I would share a few ‘foodie’ thoughts and cooking tips on fennel.

Fennel in Italian is “Finocchio”.  It has a licorice flavor, and is a part of the celery family.  It is actually a licorice-flavored celery. Like celery, it is low in calories, and contains vitamin C, potassiam, and small amounts of folate.  When shopping for fennel bulbs, they should be clean and firm with feathery green fronds. 

“Finnocchio” is on our Christmas Eve table as the green fronds are cut and removed from the bulb.  The ‘bulb’ is then sliced on a platter with extra-virgin olive oil dusted with salt and black pepper.  The sliced bulb make great dippers for the olive oil.  Because fennel has a licorice flavor, it cleanses the palate.  The finocchio is traditionally served in our family as the course served before the sweet course, cleansing the palate.  Lupini beans, fresh fruits, and roasted chestnuts are also part of this course and our family table.  That’s another chapter!!  For now, I hope you enjoy experimenting with fennel – I love it raw in the summer, and roasted in the Fall. 

Fennel can also be sliced and tossed with olive oil and lemon juice, with fresh-sliced oranges as a simple, nutritious, and low-fat salad.

For cooked fennel, try roasting slices of fennel with olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper in a 400-degree oven until tender and slightly brown.

Fennel also makes for a nice companion to apples, potatoes, apples and pork. 

GochYa Cooking?

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Filed Under: Appetizers, Christmas Buon Natale!, Cooking Tips, Cooking with Noni, Gluten-Free Recipes, In The Garden, Recipes, Vegetables Tagged With: Chester County Pennsylvania, Cynthia Goch, extra virgin olive oil, fennel, finocchio, food recipes, healthy food, Italian cookbook, MaMa Mia Cucina, summer salads, traditional dishes, vegetable dishes, vegetable garden, vegetables, what is fennel?

About Cynthia Ferich

After writing and self-publishing “MaMa Mia Cucina” in 2007, Cynthia's writing, cooking and culinary teachings evolved into being as an entity surrounding food, fun, family and friends.

In an effort to capture her family’s ‘old world’ Italian recipes for future generations to enjoy, her grandmother, ‘Noni’, and Cynthia joined forces. "She measured, I wrote, and we cooked."

During her grandmother's latter 80 years, she traveled in memory through her life, as they shared in stories of a lifetime and long ago. As they shared this final chapter in her life, what Cynthia soon discovered through all of the measuring, cooking, sharing in the love of a family, and in the love of a friendship, was the passion for cooking, and a love that nourishes us all… It’s all about the FOOD!

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I met Cynthia and was immediately taken in by her charm and passion for cooking. She presented me … Read More

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