Here’s a pretty simple and super tasty dish you can make for dinner at home in about 20 minutes. It’s quick, comforting, very seasonal, and delicious. It takes advantage of the wonderful fresh fennel that’s abundant at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market (and maybe yours as well) right now! Lively, hinting of licorice, light, and refreshing in its fresh form, its flavors become more nuanced and rich when it’s sautéed the way it is here.
To make the dish, start by cooking some long pasta in water that’s been well-salted with sea salt (I like the French grey salt). I used Mancini spaghetti the other day (the only farmstead pasta maker in Italy, we use their marvelous maccheroni at the Roadhouse); Rustichella’s artisan fettuccine would be wonderful as well!
While the pasta is cooking, cut the fennel—stalks and stem—into one-inch pieces. (Save any leaves to chop for garnish at the end.) Saute in hot extra virgin olive oil til they’re al dente. Add a small bit of sea salt to the fennel while it’s cooking. Zest a large lemon and leave it in a small bowl on the side. In a small saucepan or skillet, toast a dozen or so black peppercorns. Toasting the peppercorns, as it would with nuts, will enhance, and slightly alter the flavors. Just be careful not to burn ’em! When the pepper is lightly toasted, set aside to cool, then grind coarsely in a pepper mill or with a mortar and pestle.
While the pasta is boiling pull out some of the cooking water and set aside. Once it’s almost al dente, take the pasta out of the pot and add to the skillet with the cooked fennel pieces. Add a bit of Agrumato Lemon Oil or Marina Colonna’s Granverde—the flavor is exceptional and really takes the dish to the next level. Both are traditionally made oils that are made by pressing olives and lemons together (not, as is commonly done in more commercial versions, by adding lemon extract later to preexisting olive oil) and both are on special during our annual summer sale. Toss the pasta. Add some of the lemon zest, black pepper, and a pinch of salt.
Spoon in some fresh ricotta. (I’m an enormously big fan of the Bellwether Ricotta we have at the Creamery—we have it on hand almost all the time at our house!) Add a few spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water to thin the “sauce.” Stir gently, taste, and add salt, a bit more ground black pepper, and/or more lemon zest to taste. Toss again and place the pasta into warm bowls. Grate a good bit of Parmigiano Reggiano on top, and garnish if you want with a little more lemon zest and/or black pepper! A little ribbon of the lemon oil and a few of the chopped fennel fronds on top make a nice, aromatically appealing garnish as well.
