Pasta, roasted fennel, lemon & capers . . .

Ingredients:

1 kg (2.2 lbs) of fennel

4 tbsp olive oil

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small hand full of parsley, chopped

1 tbsp small capers

1 lemon, juice of and also the grated zest of half of the lemon

salt & pepper to taste

500 g (17.7 oz) spaghetti

½ cup of the pasta cooking water

 

     Optional

     dried chili flakes

     1 tbsp chicken stock powder

     1 tbsp  butter

     200 ml (6.8 oz or 0.85 cup) cream

     a few tbsp of grated cheese

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Remove the upper end of the fennel and the inner stalk and cut the fennel into approx. 0.5 cm thin strips. Keep a little of the fennel greens as an edible decoration.

3. Put the fennel in a baking dishtogether with the olive oil, garlic, parsley, capers, lemon (juice and zest), chili, salt, and pepper. Combine and bake for 20 minutes.

4. While the fennel is in the oven, start cooking your pasta. If available, add a bit of vegetable stock powder to the cooking water. Some cooking water is used later, so it will have a little more flavor.

5. Drain the pasta and collect half a cup of the cooking water.

        - If you prefer, add a piece of butter to the cooked pasta.

        After the fennel was in the oven for 20 minutes, add the half cup of pasta cooking water to the baking dish, stir,

        and bake for about another 15 minutes, until the fennel is soft. Switch off the oven.

        Now add the pasta, the cream and the grated cheese to the fennel baking dish and toss well..

        Leave in the warm 'off-oven' for 10-minutes.

        Arrange on a plate and garnish with some fennel leaves