Wednesday 28 June 2017

Fennel and potatoes in tomato sauce

vegetable side dish


Having looked at beautiful savoury mini muffins with garlic scapes on Choclette's blog Tin and Thyme, I popped into the garden to see if I can find any scapes. Nope, just as I thought, they'd come later in summer, in mid-July. I still picked a few green garlic leaves for the fennel and potato dish.
I planted garlic a few years ago on the strawberry patch as a preventive measure against slugs, and now find it growing in the most bizarre places in the garden. The slugs were undeterred, but the garlic stayed.

I had in mind cooking patatas bravas for dinner tonight, but there was lovely fennel at a reduced price in Waitrose, and I got a couple of bulbs. So, it's not exactly patatas bravas, but this dish is inspired by the classic Spanish recipe.

vegetarian meals


400g new potatoes, skins on
3tbsp olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs
smoked sea salt
1tbsp smoked paprika
1tsp finely chopped parsley
1tbsp butter
1 tin of tomato fillets in tomato juice (Cirio Filetti)
2tbsp chopped garlic greens

Cut new potatoes into chunks and parboil them in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain the water. Slice fennel bulbs and place them into a big roast tin or ceramic dish. Scatter the potatoes on top. Add the olive oil, season with smoked sea salt and paprika and mix well.
Add a little bit of butter. Chop the garlic greens (or swap for a garlic clove) and fresh parsley, and scatter over the veg. Pour the contents of tomato fillets in tomato juice over the vegetables as well as half a tin of water.
Place the dish in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for 30+ minutes until the potatoes are soft.
If you like it hot, add more paprika or chilli flakes. 1tbsp of paprika gives it a flavour rather than heat. And smoked paprika has a beautiful flavour.

This dish could make a lovely vegetarian meal, serve it with a chunky bread.
It will also make a tasty side dish to go with meat or fish.

vegetarian meals

In this recipe I used Cirio Filetti, but any other tinned Cirio product would work well in this dish.

vegetarian meals




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