Gourmet wild fennel. Here you have all the secrets and tricks in the kitchen to enjoy it to the fullest

Humanity owes a lot to wild fennel. In practice, it was thanks to him that he went from eating raw to cooked. At least from the Prometheus myth that he stole the sacred flame from Zeus by hiding a spark in the stalk of wild fennel to give man fire. To which is added another myth: its aphrodisiac properties. Pliny narrates them in his Natural History and it is attested by the head crowned with fennel of the priests at the festivals of Dionysus, god of wine and the renewal of life. Although its success is mainly due to its refreshing, carminative, regenerative and aromatic qualities.

In the middle Ages

There are testimonies that, already in the Middle Ages, it was used to season recipes with pork meat, sausages (the finocchiona note) and that the innkeepers took advantage of its smell to cover up the poor quality of the wine. Cunning custom in the origin of the verb “infinocchiare”. In the Marches it is almost an institution. In particular in the Pesaro area. In fact, in the Monte Catria area, the Frontone administration, after the De.Co crescia, has recently produced the “Rabbit in Porchetta” a dish with a Municipal Designation. The heat was “ceremonial”, the cold “on a trip”, each family had its own recipe that, somehow, was historically codified with a party in August of the Pro loco that has 67 editions to its credit. On the side of Monte Nerone, in Cagli, chef Gabriele Giacomucci of Gioconda, the restaurant that won the “4 Restaurants” television contest for its cuisine with Acqualagna truffle, proposes it on a brown base with a hint of star anise that enhances flavor. “wild” of the supreme graffiti while Valerio Ferri perfumes the spaghetti in “Le Fontane”. Soften the onion with the pepper and the lard cut into strips, add the chopped wild fennel beards, blend with grappa and add the noble fossa cheese. In reserve, it also has a fennel distillate. This sensual plant also gets along very well with fish. Traditional sea snails teach.

the mallet

At Lanterna di Fano, Flavio Cerioni and chef Elide Pastrani use it fresh at the end of spring to give the mollusk called rubio de mar that particular flavor. An Adriatic fish that, feeding on crabs, has a meaty flavor that is perfected with a bit of bacon and wild fennel. Like beards, they make their “CrescTajat” special, a pasta made with polenta served with prawns. But if it is true that the sea in the Marches is also declined in the plural, each stretch of coastline hides its beauties and each marina has its own cuisine, it is also true that what makes the Adriatic in the Marches unique are the moscioli, a Bastion from Slow Food and paccasassi del Conero, sea fennel. They were brought together by the multifaceted chef Walter Borsini, professor at the Loreto hotel school and consulting executive chef at the Napoleonic Fortress. He practically codified by innovating the meat-stuffed mosciolo, a typical Ancona dish. His version intertwines technique and passion with that pinch of creativity that makes the difference. He stuffs the raw mollusks with pork, veal, mortadella, pecorino cheese, stale bread and chopped paccasassi and, closed, cooks them with cloves of garlic, onion, tomato and wine. To eat by the sea.

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on the Corriere Adriatico