Chef Graziella
Cannelloni Ricotta e Spinaci
Hand-rolled pasta sheets wrapped around a filling of ricotta and spinach, covered in besciamella and baked until golden. This is the Sunday cooking of Emilia-Romagna, made without shortcuts.
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Finocchi Gratinati
Created by
Fennel transformed by nothing more than proper blanching, good cheese, honest breadcrumbs, and butter. What you leave out matters as much as what you put in.
Side Dishes
Italian
Weeknight
Dinner Party
20 min
Active Time
35 min cook•55 min total
Yield6 servings
Fennel confuses Americans. They see the bulb with its strange fronds and do not know what to do with it. Italians, particularly in the north, have understood fennel for centuries. Raw, it is crisp and refreshing, with a gentle anise flavor that cleanses the palate. Cooked, it becomes something else entirely: sweet, tender, almost buttery in texture.
This gratin requires no cream, no elaborate sauce, no distraction. You blanch the fennel until it surrenders its resistance, then you bless it with Parmigiano-Reggiano and breadcrumbs moistened with butter. The oven does the rest. The top becomes golden and crackling while the fennel beneath remains soft and yielding.
I have watched students try to complicate this dish. They want to add garlic, or herbs, or cream. They do not trust that four ingredients can produce something worth eating. But this is the Italian way. You begin with something good, you treat it simply, and you let it speak for itself. The fennel is the star. Everything else exists to frame it.
Fennel has grown wild along the Mediterranean since antiquity, prized by Romans who believed it improved eyesight and courage. The tradition of gratinati in Northern Italy developed as home cooks discovered that vegetables blanched and baked under a crust of cheese and breadcrumbs gained complexity without losing their essential character. This technique spread through Emilia-Romagna and the Veneto, where it remains a fixture of Sunday tables.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fennel bulbs
Quantity
4 medium (about 3 pounds total)
kosher salt
Quantity
for blanching and seasoning
unsalted butter
Quantity
4 tablespoons, plus more for the dish
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Quantity
1 cup
freshly grated
fresh breadcrumbs
Quantity
3/4 cup
from day-old Italian bread
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fennel bulbs | 4 medium (about 3 pounds total) |
| kosher salt | for blanching and seasoning |
| unsalted butter | 4 tablespoons, plus more for the dish |
| Parmigiano-Reggianofreshly grated | 1 cup |
| fresh breadcrumbsfrom day-old Italian bread | 3/4 cup |
| black pepperfreshly ground | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Large pot for blanching
- •9x13-inch baking dish or oval gratin dish
- •Clean kitchen towel for draining
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the fennel
Remove the stalks and feathery fronds from the fennel bulbs. Reserve a few fronds if you wish, but they are not essential. Trim a thin slice from the base of each bulb, but leave the core intact. The core holds the wedges together during cooking. Cut each bulb lengthwise into wedges about three-quarters of an inch thick. You should get four to six wedges per bulb.
- 2
Blanch the fennel
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt it generously. It should taste like the sea. Add the fennel wedges and cook until tender when pierced with a knife, 8 to 12 minutes depending on thickness. The fennel should yield easily but not fall apart. Drain thoroughly and let the wedges rest in a single layer on a clean kitchen towel. Excess water is the enemy of a proper gratin.
Test the thickest part of the wedge. Underdone fennel remains fibrous and unpleasant. Overdone fennel turns to mush under the broiler. There is a window of perhaps two minutes between them. - 3
Prepare the topping
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and half the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Pour the melted butter over this mixture and toss with a fork until the crumbs are evenly moistened. They should clump slightly when pressed.
- 4
Assemble the gratin
Heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a baking dish generously. Arrange the fennel wedges in a single layer, overlapping slightly if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Scatter the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano directly over the fennel, then distribute the buttered breadcrumb mixture evenly on top.
- 5
Bake until golden
Bake in the upper third of the oven until the topping is deeply golden and the edges of the fennel begin to caramelize, 20 to 25 minutes. If the top browns too quickly, move the dish to a lower rack. If it remains pale after 25 minutes, finish under the broiler for one to two minutes, watching constantly.
The gratin is done when you see the cheese bubbling at the edges and the breadcrumbs have turned the color of a hazelnut shell. Trust your eyes over the clock. - 6
Rest and serve
Let the gratin rest for five minutes before serving. This allows the cheese to set slightly and prevents it from sliding off when you serve. The fennel should be soft and sweet, the topping crisp and savory. Serve directly from the baking dish.
Chef Tips
- •Select fennel bulbs that are heavy for their size, firm, and white without brown spots. The stalks should smell faintly of anise when snapped. Older fennel develops a woody core and bitter flavor.
- •Fresh breadcrumbs are essential. Dry, packaged crumbs from a canister turn to sand in the oven. Tear day-old bread and pulse it briefly in a food processor. The texture should be coarse and irregular.
- •This gratin pairs beautifully with roasted pork or chicken. The sweetness of the fennel complements the richness of the meat. Italians would never serve it alone as a main course.
Advance Preparation
- •The fennel can be blanched several hours ahead and held at room temperature on a towel-lined sheet pan.
- •The assembled gratin can wait, covered, at room temperature for up to one hour before baking. Beyond that, the breadcrumbs absorb moisture and lose their crispness.
- •Leftovers reheat adequately in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes, though the topping will never regain its original crunch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 210g)
Calories
250 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
40 mg
Sodium
600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
22 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
10 g
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