Recipes

Pizzaiola-style fennel

Pizzaiola-style fennel is an easy-to-prepare side dish that will now be part of your list of ideas to make for dinner.

How boring are the usual side dishes… baked potatoes, french fries, salad. What if we told you that there is another tasty idea to accompany your meals ? Pizzaiola-style fennel is an easy-to-prepare side dish, always excellent and never predictable.

They are a vegan side dish so good that they can become a single dish to be consumed for a light lunch or dinner . However, you can decide to give crunchiness and flavor to the dish by adding a delicious gratin with grated cheese or mozzarella. Let's discover the simple process of these tasty fennels!

Preparation

How to prepare the pizzaiola fennel recipe

Wash and clean the fennel, removing the tough outer leaves, core and stem. Slice them finely and soak them in water and bicarbonate of soda for 5 minutes to remove any impurities, then rinse them.

Heat the garlic with a drizzle of oil in a pan until golden. Add the tomato pulp and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the fennel , salt and pour half a glass of water . Cook over a low heat with the lid on for 15 minutes . Add a few ladles of water if it absorbs too much in the meantime.

Remove the garlic and add oregano and black olives to taste. Cook for another 10 minutes until the fennel becomes soft. Serve the fennel pizzaiola hot.

Variations for pizzaiola-style fennel

If you want to add diced mozzarella in the last 5 minutes of cooking, you will get hot, stringy fennel. A sprinkling of grated parmesan on the surface will instead encourage the gratin and final crunchiness.
If you like the flavour, sautéing two shallots in tomato puree will give a stronger flavor to your recipe; if the sauce appears too acidic, add some sugar.

Pizzaiola-style fennel with cherry tomatoes

You can replace the tomato sauce with cherry tomatoes for the baked pizzaiola version of fennel: place the washed, cleaned and sliced fennel on a baking tray lined with baking paper together with the tomatoes cut in half, seasoned with salt and oil. Cook them at 180°C for about 20 minutes and only in the last 5 minutes of cooking add olives, capers and any cheeses.

For an unusual dinner, the fennel cutlets will surprise you… try them now!

Conservation

We recommend consuming the freshly baked fennel immediately, but if you have any leftovers, they can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Heat them well in a pan before bringing them to the table.