Roasted baby fennel and tomato pasta

Roasting vegetables is one of the simplest yet most effective of kitchen tricks. Once they come out of the oven, any flavour they started with has multiplied to create an intensity that equates to deliciousness.

Add whole baby tomatoes and garlic cloves in their husks, and there’s a triumvirate hard to beat. I used tagliatelle, and the sauce included sautéed red onion, white wine, mascarpone, and fennel seeds for an extra pop of the flavour of anise. To serve, I snipped off some broccoli microherbs, but any microherb will do if you grow them, or use chopped fennel fronds.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

4 tagliatelle nests, cooked al dente (or pasta of your choice such as linguine or penne)

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups baby fennel, trimmed and in strips

6 whole garlic cloves in their husks

16 baby tomatoes

1 Tbsp fennel seeds

1 large red onion, chopped

2 glasses of dry white wine (separate)

Coarse sea salt

Black pepper

Pasta water

100 g mascarpone

Finely grated Parmesan

Broccoli micro herbs

Method

Preheat the oven to 190℃. Prepare the fennel by rinsing them, cutting away the narrow stems and root bases, and slicing the bulbs into slim strips.

Oil a heavy oven dish and add the fennel, along with whole garlic in their husks and baby tomatoes. Sprinkle the fennel seeds over and season with salt and black pepper. Add more olive oil and give it a shake.

Put it in the oven to roast for about 30 to 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, take it out and toss the contents, and return it to the oven.

Braise the chopped red onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then add 1 glass of dry white wine (not both) and reduce to a sticky essence. 

When the fennel and tomatoes are sufficiently roasted (you’ll know by the aroma and that they have taken on colour but not burnt), squeeze out the roasted garlic pulp into the onions. Mash the garlic with the bottom end of a wooden spoon and stir so that the garlic combines with the onion.

Add the roasted fennel and tomatoes to the same mixture, so that everything is now in the pan in which you sautéed the onions.

On the hob, deglaze the oven pan in which you roasted the fennel with the second glass of white wine while scraping the bottom of the pan, reduce and add to the pan containing everything else.

Cook the pasta but, before draining it, spoon off a ladle of the pasta water and add it to the pan of vegetables. Add the mascarpone too, and simmer on a low heat, stirring, until all is combined. Check seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper if necessary. If so, cook for another minute or two.

Serve in pasta bowls, with grated Parmesan on top and garnished with microherbs or chopped fennel fronds. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

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This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.