Fennel Risotto

Florence fennel was not a vegetable that I grew up eating. (Did anyone outside Italy?!). However, since I started growing it (like many things) I’ve really fallen in love with it. One year, I ended up having about 50 spare fennel bulbs to eat - I had to harvest them all in one day as there was a hard frost forecast - but they last really well in the fridge, and more importantly the addition of fennel is brilliant in so many dishes. I used them as a base (with onion and garlic) in almost everything I cooked and it was a delicious couple of months.

I have noticed that as often people are new to Florrence fennel, they aren’t quite sure which bits to eat! So here’s a little guide. Let’s start at the top:

If you’re lucky to get nice fresh fennel bulb (like our Farm & Feast members do) then it will come with plenty of frilly leafy fronds. These fronds are edible but can be a bit tough. Pick off a few for a garnish. Use the rest to flavour a stock but you probably dont want to actually eat it.

The same goes for the circular stems coming out of the bulb - great for flavouring a stock, but often too tough or woody to eat.

Then you have the bulb itself. This is the really delicious bit - so good either roasted or chopped up and slowly cooked in butter. To chop it up I would normally cut off the stems, cut the bulb in half or quarters and then use a sharp knife to cut out a wee triangle “core” of the bulb. It’s not strictly necessary and if you’re not sure, just taste a bit of it to see how tough it is.

So there you go, leaves, stems, bulb and core. Now you know everything I do!

Serves 2

1 fennel bulb (save some fronds to garnish)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Butter
Approximately 800ml vegetable stock
150g risotto rice
80ml white wine
zest of half a lemon
50g Parmesan, grated

1. Finely chop the fennel bulb, onion and garlic. Save some fennel fronds to garnish. And you can also save some fennel stalks to flavour your stock.

2. Heat up a big glug of olive oil and knob of butter in a heavy sauce pan and add the fennel, onion, garlic and a big pinch of salt. Cook (with a lid on) over a low heat for 15 minutes, or longer.

3. Meanwhile heat up your stock. If you’ve already made it and are heating it from cold, put it in a pan with some fennel stalks to add extra flavour as it heats up. If you’re making your stock with a kettle and stock cube, then I probably wouldn’t bother with the stalks. (You could freeze them for making stock later)

3. Once the the onion and fennel are soft, translucent and succulent, add the risotto rice and stir well.

4. Add the white wine and stir until it is absorbed by the rice. Then gradually add spoonfuls of hot stock. This should take you 15 minutes or so.

5. Once all the stock is added and absorbed, taste the rice. It should be cooked, but with a little bite remaining. If it’s not cooked enough yet, keep stirring and adding small amounts of boiling hot water.

6. Once the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Add the zest of half a lemon, grated Parmesan cheese and another knob of cold butter. Stir well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

7. Serve immediately, garnished with a few fennel fronds.