Autumn is finally here and it gets cool as soon as the sun goes down, but the days are still bright blue and sunny. This summer and fall we haven’t had rain at all and that means no excursions into the woods to hunt mushrooms. But there’s always something to harvest in Tuscany and right now the countryside is loaded with bright yellow wild fennel flowers turning to seed. I know that if I wait a month there will be a great crop of wild fennel seed, but as soon as it gets cool I start thinking about roasted pork and pancetta, how great they would be dusted with fresh fennel pollen and I can’t wait.
Fennel pollen has become a big hit with chefs in America. It sounds so exotic and carries a big price tag. Which I find amusing, really, because wild fennel plants line the country lanes in Tuscany and cover the meadows, free for the picking. The wild fennel flower is basically a dot of yellow pollen on the end of a small stem, surrounded by miniscule petals, almost too small to notice. A dozen or more of these form the flower, so when you’re collecting fennel pollen you’re in effect collecting the flowers.
Fennel is great for digestion and intestinal ailments and the locals frequently make a tea to drink after dinner. It’s also a main ingredient in digestivi and bitters, Italian liquors drunk after dinner to aid digestion, and bowls of the seeds are often found in Indian restaurants for you to snack on after dinner.
Of course if you don’t have wild fennel growing in the fields where you live, just grind cultivated seeds for the same effect. Fennel marries beautifully with pork and Italians put fennel seed, both wild and cultivated, in lots of pork products. You find the whole seeds in fresh sausage and the Tuscan salami known as finocchiona, while ground seeds are rubbed on the outside of cured pork products like guanciale and copacolla.
Buon Appetito! Gina
Maiale Arrosto con Finocchio (roast pork with wild fennel)
pork loin roast, with fat if possible
extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp wild fennel seeds and flowers, whole or crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
5-7 fresh sage leaves
4 garlic cloves
salt
white wine (dry)
Salt the roast. In a heavy sauté pan, heat a small amount of oil and brown the meat over a high heat, turning to brown all sides and ends. Remove and place it in a roasting pan.
Rub the fennel all over the pork, place the rosemary and sage underneath the roast and scatter the garlic cloves around it. Pour in enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan. Roast it in the oven at 425° until the internal temperature reads 150°, turning the roast over once. (An instant read thermometer is indispensable for this.) Remove from oven and let it rest 15 minutes before slicing. Slice the roast and serve it topped with the pan juices, with a sprinkle of fennel pollen on top. Garnish with fennel fronds.