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Roasted Fennel Recipe with Cheese and Basil
This wonderful Italian recipe combines fennel with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes. These typical Italian seasonings bring plenty of flair and vibrancy to the side and this makes a great appetizer. You could also serve it as an entree for vegetarians or as a side dish if you are cooking meat or fish. It is best to use Parmigiano-Reggiano in this recipe, rather than fresh grated parmesan, which is not as good or ready-grated fake "parmesan" which is horrendous and not even real parmesan! If you want to make an authentic Italian vegetarian recipe, follow the ingredients list, using Parmigiano-Reggiano and fresh pureed tomatoes. You can use canned pureed tomatoes if you have to but make sure they are good quality.
Fennel is a flavorful vegetable and there are different ways to serve it. You can serve it raw in salad recipes or baked. Combining fennel with cheese is always a nice way to serve it. Actually most vegetables are good served with cheese or in a cheese-based sauce but fennel and cheese pair especially well, and the tomatoes and basil finish off the effect, giving this healthy vegetable plenty of flavor and color too.
As you can imagine, this dish smells great. The aromas of cheese, fresh basil, and fennel combine and everyone you serve this to will know it is something special before they have even tasted it. This baked fennel recipe is easy yet the results are spectacular and everybody is sure to enjoy it a lot. This is one of the best baked fennel recipes you will find out there.
How to Cook Fennel Parmigiana
Ingredients -
11 oz mozzarella cheese
½ lb Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 large fennel bulbs
3 ½ oz fresh basil
1 ¼ pints pureed tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Clean the fennel and cut the bulbs in half lengthways.
Boil them in salted water for 20 minutes and dry off.
Dice the onion and fry it in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add the tomato puree and cook for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the fennel into ¼ inch thick slices and arrange in an ovenproof baking dish, which you have greased with olive oil.
Arrange the mozzarella slices in the dish and add a layer of tomato sauce.
Sprinkle generously with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Make more layers in this way until all the ingredients are used.
Scatter some basil leaves on top and drizzle some oil.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes.
(Serves 4 as an Appetizer, Side Dish or 2 as an Entree)
Wine Suggestion:
Which Wine Goes with Roasted Fennel Recipes
Try a medium-bodied white wine with a hint of fruitiness if you really want to balance your food with your drink. A California Pinot Gris would be the perfect wine to serve with this. If you are planning to serve fish for the entree, you might prefer to open a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc because that would also go nicely with this baked fennel appetizer as well as with the fish.
Photo Description:
As you can see from the picture, the baked fennel sits underneath a delicious layer of tomatoes and cheese. You can either add the basil leaves before baking or after the dish is ready. Some people prefer the bolder flavor of raw basil and do not like the wilted appearance of it after it has been in a hot oven, but that is up to you. If you have only ever had raw fennel in salad recipes why not make this delicious baked fennel recipe and find out just how good this vegetable is when you bake it and add tasty Italian seasonings?
What is Fennel Exactly?
If you are thinking about making a roasted fennel dish or a baked fennel recipe, you might like to learn a little more about this vegetable before you begin. Fennel is a crunchy vegetable which has a gentle sweetness. It adds a refreshing flavor to many different Mediterranean dishes and is associated with Italian and French cuisines.
Fennel is readily available from fall until early spring. This white or pale green bulb has stalks on top and the stalks have feathery green leaves on then. Flowers grow out of the feathery leaves and this is where fennel seeds come from. You can eat every part of the plant. Fennel is closely related to carrots, dill, cilantro, and parsley.
This versatile vegetable dates back to the early days and Greek myths claim that fennel was associated with the Greek god of food and wine. Its aromatic flavor is reminiscent of anise and licorice, although the texture is more like celery. Learning how to cook fennel is very easy and there are lots of different roasted fennel recipes you can try.
The History of Fennel
The ancient Greeks called fennel "marathron" and grew it in the field where a famous ancient battle was fought. The battle was named the Battle of Marathon later, similar to the fennel plant's name. This vegetable was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for medicinal purposes as well as in fennel recipes. This vegetable has been grown all over Europe, including the Near East and the region surrounding the Mediterranean, since ancient times. Today, the leading cultivators include the United States, Russia, India, and France.
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