Photo by Jen Smallwood of Portsmouth, Virginia
The 8/19/ farm share for Glade Road Growing is slated to include: lettuce mix, parsley, fennel bulb, potatoes, Rosa de Tropea onions, tomatoes, delicata and summer squash. There are so many ways to combine these ingredients that I hardly knew where to start. I thought, though, that since my recipes last year's recipes featured roasted fennel (see below) I'd go with raw fennel while peaches and tomatoes are still in season.
Serves 4 to 6
The first step is to make a fennel frond and ginger pesto:
1. Squeeze one lemon or lime (2 - 3 TB juice)
2. Finely chop 1 TB fresh ginger and peel and chop one clove fresh garlic.
3. Shear the fronds from the fennel bulb and chop roughly to make about 2 cups.
4. Combine in a blender or food processor with a drizzle of 2 - 3 TB of extra virgin olive oil. Scrape into a medium to large bowl.
Prepare the salad:
1. Trim the fennel root and the tender portions of the stalk and slice thinly.
2. Slice 2 medium peaches in half, remove pit and slice into wedges.
3. Slice half of the onion into thin rings
4. Remove the stem core from two tomatoes and cut each into 1/8ths.
Add to bowl and toss lightly. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste. You can serve this over a bed of the lettuce mix, if you like. If you'd like for this to be a main course, you can include goat cheese and walnuts or cooked white beans.
You can also chop the salad more finely and serve it as a salsa with black beans and yellow rice.
Here's are a couple of other fennel recipes:
*roasted fennel and white beans
*roasted chicken with fennel
and here's a recipe for the squash and tomatoes, combined with eggplant:
*Moroccan squash and egg plant stew
