Finocchio. Italian for Fennel. But I think of it in my head as “Fin-noch”, as the person who introduced me to it was Sicilian, and they seem to have a habit of dropping the last vowels from words. She served it in thin wedges, often just handed to you, after a meal as a digestive. “Mangia, Mangia, the fin-noch, hace la calma de estomago.” The fennel calms the stomach. I have no idea if there’s any truth to it, but she believed it did, so we did. It did seem to make just a bit more room in there for cannoli. Fennel has made itself known on a much wider scale now. You can buy it in almost any grocery store, and find hundreds of ways to cook and prepare it. I’m a bit stuck in a rut with it, repeating favorite preparations over again and again. I love it sliced thinly into salads, and am crazy for a softly braised version I do, and this one. But I almost always cut a bit off to nibble on while I’m cooking, you know, to “calma de estomago”.
A Plate Full 