that’s stuck in the bottom of the refrigerator drawer? It’s wilted, definitely doesn’t look safe, and you don’t really want to touch it. Yesterday I woke up at 4 in the morning and by lunch time, I was that vegetable.
No shower since France, pajamas under my sweater, unmotivated to clean buckets of dust rolling around the office and every time I stood up I thought it was best to sit down.
Around lunchtime I opened the door of the fridge and in there was a head of fennel in training to be me. You just never know what it’s going to be that’s going to move you/save you. “WAIT!” I yelled at it. “I need you!”
I gave it a rinse, cut off the tops and whacked it down the middle. I set it on it’s side and cut it so thin you could almost see through it.
Put a heavy saute pan on the heat with life breathing olive oil and three whole cloves of peeled, uncut garlic. Added thyme sprigs and a bay leaf. Gave it a little sea salt. When the garlic went golden, pushed in the fennel. Let it go over a medium fire until it was completely wilted with half a piece of beautiful bacon from the freezer that had the fat broken off. I moved the fennel to the side of the pan for a minute to crisp the pork. Gave a few tablespoons of the stock I had on the stove and let everything go even further. When the fennel was completely soft, and the garlic cloves golden, I smashed the garlic with my knife, cut it into bits and put it back in the pan. Pasta water on, with a good pinch of salt and penne rigate only until seriously al dente. Grated a haystack of parmigiano reggiano and when the pasta was done, in it went to the fennel pan, with a few more spoons of stock and the parm. Holy cow.
I’m on my horse again, showered and I swept.