Roasted Cabbage with Crispy Fennel and Balsamic Drizzle

Are you afraid of fennel? For one reason or another, this fragrant, bulb of an herb is often avoided in the grocery store. Perhaps you don’t know how to chop and prepare it. Perhaps you don’t like the strong, almost licorice-like flavor. Or perhaps you can’t imagine what you would cook with it. If any of this sounds familiar, I encourage you to stop what you’re doing and try this recipe today (especially if you’re reading this in the fall or winter!). When roasted to a crisp, fennel loses its bite and gains in depths of flavor, elevating a rather elementary roasted cabbage to a show-stopping plate that would serve well on a random Wednesday night or at a winter, holiday feast.

·         Fennel Bulb with Fronds

·         Green Cabbage

·         Olive Oil

·         Salt and Pepper

·         Balsamic Vinegar

·         (optional) Bacon

1)      Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F

2)      Slice Cabbage into wedges about 4 inches wide, and no more than 3 inches thick at its widest point. Place on a sheet pan.

3)      Remove the tops and fronds of fennel, but save them. Slice the bulb in half. Now it’s decision time! Do you want a quick, simple, sheet pan dinner? If so, see 3.a. Or do you want to layer in some decadence with crumbled bacon? See 3.b. for optional bacon add in.

a.       Working from the outside in, slice entire bulb fennel vertically into ¼ inch, very thin strips. Place on the sheet pan next to cabbage. Sprinkle cabbage and fennel with olive oil, salt and pepper, gently massaging the cabbage to coat but keeping the wedges intact. Space wedges and strips evenly apart on your sheet pan and without overlapping. Place in the plan and roast for 25 minutes, then flip, and roast for another 10. At this point, your fennel should be nice and crispy, and you can remove it from the pan. Drizzle balsamic over the cabbage wedges and roast for another 5 minutes.

b.      Proceed with 3.a, except save half of the fennel bulb. Once the cabbage and fennel strips are in the oven, turn a pan on to medium heat. Fry the bacon to desired crispness and retain some of the grease in the pan. Place tin foil in your sink drain and pour the remaining grease in the tin foil so it doesn’t clog your drain! It will accumulate and while you are cooking so you can easily throw it away. Slice the remaining half of the fennel bulb horizontally into very thin half-moons. You can do this with either a sharp knife or a mandolin. When there are 10 minutes remaining on your cabbage, put the half-moons in the pan with bacon grease and fry on medium heat. You will plate these under the cabbage at the end.

4)      Place green fennel fronds on a plate, with the roasted cabbage wedges on top. Sprinkle with crispy fennel (if you haven’t eaten all the chips already!) and finish with a fresh drizzle of Balsalmic vinegar.