Roasted fennel with white beans, green olives and lemon
I absolutely adore roasted fennel. Truthfully I love fennel all ways – raw in salads or as a snack, braised in stock and white wine or in milk like I do with pork (a very delightful Tuscan recipe). Here the glossy bulbs are roasted until very tender and caramelised which makes the creamy oregano-spiked white bean puree a perfect companion. Topped with lemony olives, this is a really wonderful dish. I would be very happy with this for lunch with a leafy salad or you can serve it as a side to some grilled fish or roasted chicken. YOU WILL LOVE IT!
Serves 4
2 bulbs fennel, quartered
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
White beans
2 400g tins white beans, drained and rinsed
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
250ml chicken or vegetable stock
3 sprigs oregano, plus extra to serve
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
Zest of a lemon
Sea salt
Green Olives
100g Sicilian green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
Juice of a lemon
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Zest of a lemon, to serve
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Arrange the fennel onto a roasting or baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil. Turn to coat and season with sea salt. Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, then turn the fennel over and reduce the oven to 180C. Roast for a further 15-20 minutes or until the fennel has softened and caramelised. Keep warm.
For the beans, combine all of the ingredients into a large saucepan. Season with salt. Bring to a simmer over a medium heat and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the beans are very tender and the garlic is soft. Remove the oregano sprigs and blitz into a rough puree either with a stick blender or in a blender. I like to leave it quite chunky so you could even just use a fork or a potato masher. Loosen with some more extra virgin olive oil and add the lemon zest and some salt to taste.
Combine the olives in a small bowl with the lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and a little sea salt.
Smooth the puree at the base of a serving dish. Top with the roasted fennel then scatter over the lemony olives. Drizzle the fennel with any remaining extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice left from the olives. If needed, drizzle with some more fresh extra virgin olive oil. Scatter over the lemon zest, some extra oregano leaves and season with sea salt and black pepper.
