Fennel seeds, fennel bulbs, fennel fronds–fennel is a vegetable, an herb, and a spice
My mother, at some point in her cooking tenure, decided that fennel seeds were the ingredient which converted browned beef in tomato sauce from just that to pasta sauce.
To be clear, she was a Polish Catholic from Detroit and knew of Italian cooking only that which the Good Housekeeping Cookbook showed her.
I always enjoyed the fennel seeds in our pasta sauce. That licorice flavor was good and came to mean mom’s spaghetti sauce. A funny thing about regional colloquialisms: in Michigan, pasta was noodles. Always. Spaghetti, fettuccine, elbow macaroni are noodles. It is from there to ask, which kind? Like this: What’s for dinner? Noodles. Which kind? Spaghetti.
Continue reading “Fennel Seed, Fennel Frond, Fennel For Spice, And Beyond”