Linguine with fennel, rocket and lemon

fettuccine with fennel, rocket and lemon

Pasta is such a versatile dish. There must be thousands of different recipes out there waiting to be made and yet we always end up making the same old, same old. But last night I was determined to find a new one to add to my repertoire. And this is what I found, which I’m now sharing with you. It’s in the Veg book by Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall (great collection of vegetarian recipes, by the way!). It’s really fresh tasting, thanks to the lemon zest and incredibly quick and easy to make. I was impressed and will certainly make it again. Of course you can use any pasta you like. I believe good old Hugh uses tagliatelle.

INGREDIENTS (for 2)

150g pasta (linguine, tagliatelle, pappardelle…whatever)

1 large fennel bulb (or 2 small ones)

 1 tablespoon olive oil

 1 garlic clove, slivered

 2 or 3 good handfuls of rocket

 Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

 3 tablespoons crème fraîche

 Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Grated parmesan, to serve

METHOD

Put a large saucepan of well-salted water on to boil so that you’re ready to cook the pasta while the sauce is coming together.

Trim the fennel, removing the tougher outer layer or two, then slice thinly. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and fennel and sauté gently for about 10 minutes, until the fennel is tender.

When the fennel is almost cooked, add the pasta to the pan of boiling water and cook until al dente.
Add the rocket to the fennel and stir until wilted, then add the lemon zest and crème fraîche. Stir well until the crème fraîche coats all the vegetables, then add salt and pepper to taste. I added a couple of tbspoons of parmesan cheese to the mixture, which is not in the recipe.

Drain the pasta well, toss with the fennel mixture, and serve right away, with grated parmesan on the top.

Related posts:

1 Response to “Linguine with fennel, rocket and lemon”


  • Un’idea per quando ci saranno tanti finocchi che alla fine non so mai come usare. Sai che variante farei? Una interpretazione alla piemontese, per valorizzare i tuoi cromosomi. E ci metterei le acciughe fatte sciogliere insieme all’olio e all’aglio dell’inizio (a questo punto niente parmigiano e forse neanche crème fraiche).

Leave a Reply