I made a pretty good dinner tonight. It definitely made my apartment smell delicious. I decided to experiment with fennel tonight. I've never really learned what fennel is, and what it's useful for. Hence, tonight I incorporated fennel into pasta and pork chops.
Fennel is a celery-like vegetable, with a sharp taste/aroma that really comes out the more you cook it. Fennel's flavor is distinctly "italian". Imagine italian sausage, whatever that makes italian sausage italian, and different than breakfast sausage. Try imagining italian sausage pizzas. That distinct flavor is provided by fennel seeds in the ground up sausage. It was this flavor that I was working with tonight.
For my pasta sauce, I decided to have a spicy tomato-based sauce. I used generic store bought sauce (Classico's Italian Sausage flavor), and I heated it in a small pot. I usually add a bit of water into the jar, to clean it out, and then I pour the water into the pot to add some liquidity to the sauce. I dumped in the fennel seeds(1tsp) and red peppers too(1-2tsp to flavor). After simmering the sauce for a bit, some water will inevitably evaporate. I sliced and sautéed half a fennel bulb in olive oil on low heat, and it really brought out the flavors into the air. I remembered seeing somewhere that you could caramelize fennel, so I tried that out. I cooked the fennel on low heat (around 2-3 heat), until I saw the fennel start to brown. Note, the fennel already turned slightly greenish-brown from being mixed with the olive oil I used to sautée. After finishing, I mixed the fennel into the simmering sauce.
While the sauce smelled good, I was really excited about the pork chops. Pork chops start out tasting like....pork, so this really gave the fennel a chance to take control of the meal. I started with the leftover oil from the sauteed fennel, and added two pork chops to the pan. This way, the flavors left over from the sauteed fennel can be added to the pork. I sprinkled fennel seeds, black pepper, and italian seasoning(mix of stuff) to the top side of the pork chop. Add salt to flavor. I cooked each side about 5 minutes, and added seasoning to the second side after flipping. I think the pork may have been a little undercooked, but it was definitely more tender than some of the ones I've made before.
Last, I took out the pork chops, and then added a bit more oil to sautée the second half-bulb of fennel. This fennel I turned on medium heat, and added a good amount of garlic powder/salt to. I wanted to add some more vegetables to the meal, and I felt that garlic and fennel would be an interesting combination. I sauteed the vegetables until soft, and then layered them over the pork chops. Delizioso.
To pair with the meal, I had an almost finished bottle of some french bordeaux. I guess it wasn't an ideal pairing, a french wine with an italian meal. It tasted alright to me though. I think overall this meal was more aromatic than my usual meals. I was satisfied enough to write this entry in any case.
- Howitzer
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