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I never really liked fennel, but decided to give it a try as I´ve never eaten it as a veg, I only knew fennel tea up until now and hated it!

I have been thinking about what to make out of the fennel for some time and because I haven´t had a risotto for quite a while decided to give that a go. What can I say - it turned out to be one of the most delicious risottos I´ve ever tasted!

If you love fennel already you have to try this one. Everyone else might want to give it a try now, just like I did.

Ingredients
3 tblsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped finely

150 g fennel, chopped finely

150 g arborio rice

200 ml white wine

750 ml hot veg stock

1 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp caraway

pepper

1 heaped tblsp mascarpone

50 g parmesan cheese

1 tblsp fennel green

Method
Heat up the olive oil in a pan and sweat the onions and the fennel until both ingredients are glassy. Add the rice and stir for two or three minutes, then add the white wine.

Stir until the whine has almost dissolved and add the stock, scoop by scoop, always stirring the risotto. Don´t add the next scoop before the liquid is almost soaked up by the rice.

After you´ve used up about half of the stock add the marjoram and the caraway, season with pepper.

Add some more stock, check on the rice every now and then. You might not need all of the stock, depends on how long the risotto takes to become al dente.

As soon as it reaches that point, add the mascarpone and the parmesan cheese and stir until it´s nice and creamy.

Add the fennel green and stir it in the risotto just before serving so it doesn´t loose it´s colour.

Serve with a glass of chilled white.

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VARIATION:
This dish is also delicious with some salmon stripes. In this case use fish stock for the risotto, season the salmon with some salt and pepper and roast it gently.

When finished, pour some lemon zest over the salmon and place it on the risotto.