Spaghetti With Fennel and Salami

As much as I love to spend a lazy afternoon with a pot bubbling on the stove I don't usually make red sauce for James. His inexplicable aversion to fresh tomatoes has started to creep into cooked dishes. He may eat them and even say they are good but red sauces aren't the dishes that send him back to the fridge looking for leftovers. Those are the real dinnertime homeruns.

None the less while browsing recipes online I found Jamie Oliver's recipe for spaghetti with fennel and salami. James loves all things licoricey (as much as I hate them), we still have a good pile of fennel salami in the fridge, and I can use the extra sauce for pizza later in the week (he still doesn't quite complain about red sauce pizza). Sold.

I started a pan with, as Oliver says, 2 lugs of olive oil and put in a handful of thinly sliced fennel salami and 3 sliced cloves of garlic. I cooked that over low heat until the salami just started to crisp and added one sliced small bulb of fennel and covered the pan to cook over moderate heat for five minutes. I took a shortcut here. The recipe calls for a large can of chopped tomatoes and I only had a can of sauce. So I added the sauce along with a few crushed red chiles and S&P and let the mixture simmer for about 11 minutes. Jamie Oliver's recipe cooked down the tomatoes for 25 minutes -- Muir Glen sauce might just be a better answer for a work night.

I drained the pasta, stirred it around in the sauce, and served it sprinkled with parmesan cheese and chopped fennel fronds.

Red sauce James liked and didn't tempt me to stray from my diet (I hate fennel and only cook it for him). "Easy peasy," as the chef would say.

Sicilian Style

Is it just too boring that we eat spaghetti so often? Do we eat more pasta than anyone else in the world? Or is spaghetti just the most versatile, comforting, delicious food ever invented?

His Highness loves fennel, anise, tarragon and all things licoricy. I can't even stand the smell. Vows and rings can't compare, it is my supreme show of love to bring James bags of Dutch black licorice (salted, sweet, gummy -- all kinds) or make a pasta dish like this one.

While the water came to a boil, I sauteed 8 anchovy filets in about 1/2 cup of olive oil, mashing the fish to a paste as they heated. Then I tossed in 1 thinly sliced bulb of fennel, one thinly sliced onion, and a pinch of crushed red pepper and cooked over medium heat until just soft (about 5 minutes). Next went in two chopped tomatoes, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, and 1/4 cup of golden raisins. The sauce simmered over low heat for about 5 minutes.

Before I drained the pasta I took one cup of the cooking water and added in 1/4 tsp of saffron threads, then added the saffron liquid and the pasta to the sauce and allowed to cook (tossing with tongs) over low heat until the spaghetti was well coated with the fennel mixture. To serve, instead of the usual cheese, I topped the pasta Southern Italian style with toasted bread crumbs for a bit of welcome crunch.

I love you Honey.