Fennel or Finocchio - It’s perfect for the autumn table.

All photos - Copyright - ©2011 - La Casa e Il Giardino – picasaweb

Fennel is a perennial plant (often cultivated as an annual) that grows wild throughout the Mediterranean and California.  The sweet bulb fennel we find in the produce section at the grocer is known as Florence fennel or finocchio in Italian. It's is a powerhouse food: every part is edible, from the common bulb to the stalk, foliage, seeds, and even pollen, which is harvested from the plant's yellow blossoms.

Fennel pollen harvested from plant's yellow blossoms

If you never tasted or cooked with fennel, now is the time to fall in love with it.

Fennel's subtle, anise flavor works just fine on its own, but does wonders when combined with other foods.  The stalks tend to be fibrous, like celery.   I add them to stocks, roasts and braises.

Chicken soup with fennel (brodo di gallina)

A simple salad of oranges, red onion and lemon vinaigrette has more zing with the addition of crunchy, raw fennel.

Blood oranges and fennel salad
Insalata di arance sanguine e finocchio

A mixed seafood salad has more flavor when chopped fennel fronds are included in the ingredients.

.

Seafood salad - Insalata di pesce

My sausages contain fennel seeds. The slightly sweet anise flavor of the seeds complements the hot spices in the sausages.



Home-made sausages

What would my porchetta taste like without the aroma of wild fennel powder?

My suggestion, if you passed fennel by in the produce section, take a second look.

https://casa-giardino.blogspot.com/2016/09/blood-oranges-town-crier-and-my.html

Insalata di Finocchio e Fagioli

PORCHETTA all'Abruzzese

What is PORCHETTA?

In Italy, porchetta is produced using a whole pig that is completely boned and seasoned with various spices according to local traditions. After joining the two edges of the carcass, it is bound with string and placed in a wood-burning oven for cooking.  It is usually prepared for important celebrations and feasts.

There are two basic types of seasonings dictated by tradition. In southern Tuscany, it is flavored with rosemary. In Abruzzo, it is seasoned with wild fennel which gives it a fragrance and taste absolutely unmistakable.

I do not have access to a whole pig nor do I have a wood-burning oven, but throughout the winter months, my family feasts with a porchetta made from a pork shoulder. I pair the pork roast with oven roasted potatoes, fried peppers and an orange-fennel salad and we make our own celebration! 

Ingredients

1 - 5 1/2 to 6 lb. pork shoulder with skin on and boned
5 whole cloves of garlic - cracked and skin on
2 tablespoons of wild fennel pollen
2 dry red peppers chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Procedure

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Place roast in a baking pan.  Drizzle evenly with 2 tablespoons of oil. Roast pork 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.  Roast pork until very tender and thermometer inserted into center of pork registers 190°F, about 3 hours 15 minutes longer. Let pork rest 15 minutes.  Best served warm.

All photos - Copyright - ©2010 - La Casa e Il Giardino - picasaweb

The inviting and distinctive scent released from the cooked porchetta is mouth-watering.  I especially love the crackling skin.

Paired with:

Fried peppers

Oven roasted potatoes

Orange and fennel salad

 Semplicemente squisita!