Select the round specimens when you can – these are known as the male bulbs. The female ones are flatter and reputed to be not as tasty because their energy is going into sprouting and going to seed – this is why they are not as round.
Usually when I make caponata I fry the vegetables separately to best preserve the flavour of the individual vegetables and accommodate the different cooking time each vegetable needs, but because the celery and fennel have similar textures I generally cook them at the same time.
All caponate (plural) have an essential agro-dolce (sweet and sour) sauce that makes caponata what it is.
INGREDIENTS
1 medium sized fennel
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tender celery stalk and some pale green leaves, finely chopped
¼ cup green olives, pitted and sliced
¼ cup capers (if salted, rinsed and soaked)
1 ripe tomato, peeled and chopped (or canned)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbs wine vinegar, white
salt and pepper to taste
PROCESSES
Prepare the fennel:
Remove any outer layers of the fennel that look damaged, trim the base and discard. Keep any young, soft fennel fronds to add to the caponata.
Slice the fennel bulbs in half vertically and then into quarters. Continue to cut the fennel into thin slices keeping them attached at the bottom.
Place extra virgin olive oil in the pan and when it is hot add the onion, fennel and celery and sauté until they begin to colour.
Add the olives, capers, tomato and salt. Cover and simmer gently until the fennel has softened (10-15 mins).
Remove the contents from the pan, add sugar to the same pan and stir over medium heat, When it begins to caramelize add the vinegar and evaporate. This is the essential agro-dolce (sweet and sour) sauce.
Return all the contents back into the pan and stir through.
Caponata is presented cold.
Other Fennel Recipes:
Fennel – male and female shapes
Tortino di finocchi (fennel flan)
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I just made this as a side dish to have with my lamb chops. It’s a really unusual thing for me to make and it is delicious! Thanks!
Love this blog! Thank you.
I am a 2nd generation sicilian-australian married to a 2nd generation triestino-australian. We have both travelled to both areas of Italy both seperately and together and have really enjoyed the diversity of food. We are now trying to replicate those dishes back here as we find our generation is rapidly losing the “old ways” and globalisation means that authenticity is lacking in a lot of food that is supposedly “Italian”, or even Sicilian here in Australia.
Thanks for doing a great job and I look forward to your blog posts.
Thank you, as you may have read I grew up in Trieste – I probably have a lot in common with you and your husband.