Fennel in Egg Sauce, or Finocchi in Salsa: A delicate dish from Emilia Romagna that will work nicely with a succulent roast or a stew. To serve 6:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 bulbs fennel
- 1/3 cup + a tablespoon (75 g) unsalted butter
- For the sauce
- 1 3/4 cups (180 g) flour
- 2 ladles of good broth (meat or vegetable as you prefer)
- 6 yolks
- The juice of 2 lemons
- Salt
Preparation:
Wash the fennel bulbs, quarter them, and boil them until fork tender in lightly salted water. Drain them well, heat the butter in a skillet, and brown them.In the meantime prepare the sauce: Begin by whisking the yolks until they are pale yellow and frothy. Set a pot over a low flame with the flour and add the broth, stirring it into the flour so as to form a paste that will be fairly dilute by the time you have finished stirring in the broth. Then stir in the yolks and the lemon juice, add salt and pepper to taste, and heat, stirring gently, until the sauce thickens somewhat (it should have the consistency of crema pasticcera, the standard Italian pastry cream).
Transfer the fennel bulbs to a heater platter, pour the sauce over them, and serve.
Note: This the sauce is quite good on other kinds of vegetables too. Depending upon the vegetable you use it with, you may want to add some minced walnuts as well. They complement string beans beautifully.
