Recipe Fennel Pasta Sauce

The first half of this week has gone by quickly for me. I have a new creative project on my hands and it’s unrelated to cooking or photography, both of which I enjoy immensely but I also appreciate having a new thing to channel myself into. We also have a whole host of home and garden improvements in the works. They are currently in the planning phase but we hope to start on them in the next week or two, so despite not being able to get away this summer, we will not be bored, that’s for sure.

Today’s recipe is a simple yet deliciously creamy and full of umami pasta that heroes fennel as it’s currently in season and it appears to be a vegetable that many people don’t seem to know what to do with, so I hope this recipe might help ‘break the ice’, so to speak. I have certainly overheard a few conversations in the vein of ‘what the hell is that?’ in my local supermarket and I have been asked by the cashier about the name as they did not know what to look for when putting my shopping through.

I do wonder if fennel is not that popular in the UK because it is so beloved across the pond, in France. I have certainly met a few English people who dislike certain vegetables on the basis of them being un-English. Garlic being a prime example. Do these people not realise that vegetables do not abide by countries’ borders or give a toss about stupid human rivalries? It honestly blows my mind. The funny thing is that often the same people who proudly announce that they have a long list of things they do not eat, consume the very thing they say they abhor with pleasure when the dish containing the offending item is prepared for them. I mean, I don’t ever consider cooking anything savoury without garlic…for example.

Chicken With Fennel Cream Sauce And Penne Recipe

This pasta dish really celebrates fennel, which gets sliced thinly and caramelised in a pan with some zucchini ribbons and charred sweetcorn. It then gets added to linguine coated in a creamy, salty and ever so slightly sweet miso sauce. Roasted and crushed hazelnuts provide a different texture and are a nice finishing touch – although pine nuts, almonds or walnuts would work well too. It’s easy and fairly quick to make and makes a nice change from tomato-based pastas that abound at this time of the year. I hope you’ll enjoy this summer dish and that the fennel will become something you look forward to having.

If you make this recipe please tag me on Instagram using the # hashtag and @. I love seeing your takes on my recipes!

*If wanting to keep this dish gluten-free, make sure to use a gluten-free miso paste – made with chickpeas, rice, millet, amaranth or quinoa instead of wheat, barley or rye.

Caramelized Fennel Paccheri With Sausage & Pistachios

**The best way to roast hazelnuts is to place them on a baking tray and bake in a 180° C / 355° F pre-heated oven for 8-12, until the skins have ruptured and the nuts beneath are golden brown and fragrant. It’s best to roast them in large batches (small batches will roast very quickly). Once out of the oven, place them in a clean kitchen towel, fold the towel over the nuts and rub them against each other with your hands through the kitchen towel – this will loosen the skins, making their removal easier. Store in an air-tight jar, in a dark cupboard, for future use.

Join our mailing list and we we will let you know when we publish a new recipe. You'll receive our DELIGHTFUL DESSERTS E-BOOK as a thank you for supporting us.Pasta with roasted fennel, lemon, and capers is a delicious combination! So simple and yet so sophisticated. If you are already a fennel lover, then you should definitely try this recipe. And if you don’t like fennel, or think you don’t, then you should try it too. Because this fennel pasta recipe even convinced me, a fennel opponent not that long ago. I am happy I gave this vegetable a try because it is too good to be missed. If you are searching for vegan recipes with fennel, then you should definitely give this one a try! It doesn’t matter if you prefer light or hearty food, as this homemade vegan fennel pasta is flexible and can be made both ways.

Fennel and I haven’t been friends for a long time. The somewhat extraterrestrial looking vegetable reminded me too much of the stomachache tea from childhood and the Greek headache schnapps from vacation (ouzo). Or the Indian fennel seeds “Pan Mukhwas” candied with sugar, which are served as a breath freshener after a meal. I will never forget when in a restaurant in India, the waiter quite naturally put the change in the “Pan Mukhwas” snack bowl. Mmmm, yummy.

Vegetarian Pasta With Toasted Fennel Seeds

Fortunately, I now know that I did the fennel an injustice. When the fennel bulbs literally smiled at me from the supermarket shelf, then I just had to know. After all, I also like the nursing tea, which contains fennel seeds, among other things, and which I drank in large quantities for a few months (fortunately it is tastier than ouzo). Fennel is now also part of my own bread spice mix and also joins many other spices in the super delicious chai syrup.

So the fennel landed in my shopping basket and later in my saucepan – or in the oven. Since I’m addicted to pasta, a mountain of spaghetti wasn’t far-fetched. I’ll tell you: delicious, this combination, pasta with fennel, but also with lemon, and capers, is a pleasure! So simple, yet so sophisticated at the same time. Speaking of pasta, spaghetti, simple, sophisticated, and delicious: Be sure to also check out this wonderful vegan avocado pasta recipe.

One great thing is that the fennel spaghetti is so easy to prepare! At first, I didn’t know at all what to do with a fennel bulb, how to clean fennel, what can and cannot be eaten, how to process or cook fennel, if you can add fennel to pasta sauce, how to cut fennel for pasta, etc. – nothing was clear to me. I always thought fennel was at least as complicated as artichokes. Luckily, the opposite is the case.

Sausage & Fennel Pasta

So far I have prepared this spaghetti con finocchi, capperi e limone, as it would be called in Italy, in two different ways: one with vegan cream and cheese and one without. And I have to say that both were wonderful!

The “pure version” without cream and cheese is perfect if you want a light meal. And/or because you avoid processed foods. It could also be eaten cold, as a fennel pasta salad (maybe then I would take a different pasta shape instead of spaghetti). The creamy fennel sauce version (which you can see in the photos, by the way) is more hearty, but still not heavy.

Pasta with roasted vegetables is just too good! So far I have loved making pasta with roasted broccoli or asparagus, but also with mixed oven vegetables (in which fennel is now also roasted). Since my fennel enlightenment, fennel has been at the forefront.

Fennel Pasta With Orange

Whether light or rich: I prepare the fennel in the oven. It can also be fried in a pan instead. It’s probably even faster. An advantage of the variant in the oven: You don’t have to stand next to it and make sure that nothing burns. Stir once or twice and it’s good. The great thing about the oven is that the fennel stews so nicely in its own juice.

I’m curious how you are going to prepare this fennel pasta, whether you were already a fennel fan before and whether you hope the dish tastes just as good. Please let me know in a comment.

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