Pasta finocchi e radicchio - Fennel and Radicchio Pasta

I like dressing my pasta with any seasonal vegetables available in the market; it's a light and satisfying dish everyone enjoys. Simple food made with good ingredients.

Here I try a new combination of winter ingredients. Fennels and round radicchio combine well together.The recipe celebrates the sweetness of fennels and the light bitterness of the round radicchio, while onion is the perfect binder and the pine nuts the sweet texture.

I could live on fennels, I love their flavour and crunchy texture. I prepare them either raw or cooked, as a side dish or in soups. However, this is the first time I use fennels in a pasta sauce. Radicchio was the inspiration: with its bitterness and its beautiful shining combination of dark red and white it called for a sweet and white companion, such fennel. 

I sauté the onion in oil until translucent, while I blanch the fennels before adding them to the onions. I keep them crunchy but cooked as they are too hard to be sautéed raw. Different vegetables need different cooking process and different timings.

Finally, I incorporate radicchio to fennels and onion  and I cook it for few minutes.

it is essential to sauté the pine nuts in a pan without any grease in oder to let them release their oil and bring out their full flavour.

Pasta finocchi e radicchio - Fennel and Radicchio Pasta

350 g short pasta - I used penne

1 large blond onion, peeled, trimmed, halved and finely sliced lengthways

2 medium-sized fennels, trimmed and quartered, green leaves set aside to decorate

1 head of round radicchio, 400 to 500 g

60 g pine nuts, preferably the long Italian ones, sweet and tasty

50 g freshly grated Parmesan

Se salt and black pepper

Extra virgin oil

Serves 3 to 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

1. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and sauté the onion on low heat with a pinch of salt for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a pan, arrange the fennels and cover them with cold water; bring to the boil. Add salt and blanch for 3 minutes. No longer, as you need to keep them crunchy. Drain and leave to cool.
3. On a chopping board,  slice the fennels vertically and add to the onions. Sauté on medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes until just golden. Stir with a wooden spoon. Adjust the seasoning.
4. Remove the outer leaves of radicchio, trim the bottom, halve and shred it. Wash and dry it.
5. Incorporate the radicchio to the fennels and onion and sauté on medium heat until just wilted, up to 5 minutes. Do not overcook, otherwise you will lose the texture and the flavour. Adjust the seasoning.
6. in a small pan, sauté the pine nuts for 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown and shining with their own oil. Stir continuously and remove immediately from the pan.
7. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add salt and cook pasta as directed.
8. Drain pasta reserving a ladle of cooking water. Return pasta to the pot and add all the sautéed vegetables, the pine nuts, the fennel greens, the pasta water along with 2 tablespoons of oil. Toss everything together. Add the Parmesan and toss to combine.
9. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of Parmesan on top.