Posts Tagged ‘fennel’

Every once in a while, I’m lucky enough to stumble upon a new recipe and know instantly that it’ll become part of our weekday dinner repertoire. This light, flavorful baked pasta — shells stuffed with ricotta, fontina, fennel and radicchio — is one of those recipes.

It had been staring at me temptingly, all cheesy and crusty, from the cover of Food & Wine, and by last week I could no longer resist. I sautéed fennel, radicchio and onions in a large pan while boiling up the jumbo shells, and then I stuffed them individually with a mixture of the sautéed veggies, fresh ricotta, shredded fontina cheese, eggs and parsley. While I prefer to make my…


It feels like spring today, which makes me fantasize about the yummiest salad I’ve eaten in ages. I was paging through the salon’s copy of House Beautiful a couple of weeks ago while some of my kids were having haircuts, and I stumbled upon this fresh and swoonful recipe. I made a mental note, and 24 hours later when I decided I absolutely had to make it, I had no luck finding the recipe online (it has since been uploaded). So off I went to try to track down the magazine, and luckily at my second stop, there was the lovely green cover of the March issue.

The recipe was provided by Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of…


I’ll just come right out and admit that I heart fennel. This is somewhat baffling to me, since I absolutely abhor licorice, and if you come within 20 feet of me with a disgusting box of Good n’ Plenty, I’m likely to throw a shoe at you. What that tells me, though, is that fennel doesn’t taste like black licorice ““ or at least what bad black licorice candy tastes like.

Fennel gets a bad rap. Since it doesn’t trot out of the produce department with nearly the same frequency as veggies in hot contention for Miss Popularity ““ say, tomatoes or cukes ““ supermarket cashiers are often stumped by the frondy white-green bulbs. More than once I’ve…