After a long day at work, it’s great to come home to a well-stocked pantry, knowing that a delicious meal is within reach. I put up water for pasta (and note: the most important part of cooking pasta is boiling a LOT of water so the pasta has room to cook). While the water was boiling, I looked in the fridge to see what was there–I had 3/4 of a fennel bulb and lots of fennel top to use, and this is what I came up with.
Fennel Pantry Pasta
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- Fennel, chopped
- Fennel greens, chopped
- Red pepper flakes
- Fennel seeds
- Butter
- Olive oil
- 1/2 cup each, grated Gruyere and Parmigiano-Reggiano
Saute the garlic in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. After a minute or so, add the chopped fennel, a tablespoon of butter, red pepper flakes, fennel seeds, and salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally–the longer and lower the fennel cooks, the more it will caramelize (a process where the natural starches in the vegetable beak down into more simple sugars).
After about 6 minutes, the fennel will brown. At this point, I added the chopped fennel top (this is something that I always keep around–it is such a great herb to add to most anything, and often it gets thrown away). When the pasta was cooked and drained, it was added to the pan with the fennel, then tossed with the cheese.
All together, it was a fast and delicious pantry meal. While I had never made this version with the fennel, I’ve made it many a time with just garlic. And it’s always oh so comforting to me.
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2 Comments
you inspired me! i signed up for your email alerts the other day after reading your article in the times. today was my first email. i had gotten home from work. and as per usual, felt that there was nothing to eat. nothing to be made. and debated, the usual: take out. and then i read your blog post about the spontaneous dinner. I thought: why not! go look in the pantry. start with pasta. and go. so i followed your lead and veared away from the fennel towards whatever i had. some broccoli and what really is overfrozen asparagus. i started the water and in the meantime got inspired to take all the half gone produce and throw it into a stock pot. its on the back burner as i type. dinner is done. and delicious. and a huge pot of tasty stock is brewing ala deborah madison’s indian stock base. perfect timing for tomorrow’s soup. exciting! thanks for the inspiration. you made dinner happen.
Dara: I am so happy that you were inspired! My favorite stocks are often started from over-ripe on-the-way out produce…You are showing the makings of a real cook. Sustainability is often about finding ways to use what you have on hand–and we all hate having things go to waste. For more tips, check out this post: A Trick About Budget Cooking. Happy Thanksgiving!