Wild fennel fronds

Fenouil sauvage

What it is

The wild subspecies makes no bulb at all — it puts everything into thread-fine fronds that are more bitter and more resinous than the cultivated plant’s. In pasta con le sarde the fronds are boiled first and the green cooking water is kept to cook the pasta, so half the flavour of the dish comes out of a pot most cooks would tip away.

In the kitchen

Boil the fronds ten minutes, chop them, and cook the pasta in that same water — salt it as you would any pasta water, since it is now the backbone of the sauce. Pick before the plant flowers: once the umbels open the fronds toughen and the anise turns harsh.

Goes with

Sardine Pine nut Raisin Saffron Semola rimacinata Olive oil Anchovy

Same species

Fennel Fennel pollen Fennel seed

Also used with

Meagre Porchetta Red scorpionfish (chapon)

In season alongside

Alexanders Fuki-no-tō (butterbur flower bud) Mugwort Yarrow Angelica Ashitaba

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