It's Never Too Hot to be Fabulous: Penne with Fennel, Currants, and Pine Nuts

OK, let’s start by establishing that I know it was a long, cold winter. I know that it lasted a really long time and we were all longing for spring. I know it snowed – really snowed – on Easter when we were in Traverse City. I know this. But we went from 40 degrees to 95 degrees more or less overnight; it’s only May and the window A/C units are in and I’ve already had my first heat-induced temper tantrum, which usually doesn’t appear until mid-July. In cold weather, you can put more clothes on; you can turn the heat up; you can give up and go to bed with extra blankets. In the summer there are some obvious limitations to the inverse of this. And thus we come to the dinner hour.

Dinner would be greatly improved by eating it here

I don’t want to cook. I don’t want to eat anything hot. I want to sit on the deck, being fanned by palm leaves, eating prosciutto-wrapped melon and sipping rose and looking at the blue waters of the Mediterranean.

Since this is my actual life, I needed to figure out something that would let me skate by with a minimum of effort without feeling guilty. It’s white wine season and I just picked up my mixed whites/roses case from Cloverleaf, so I wanted something nice enough to justify opening a bottle. And since John had two teeth pulled today (translation: won’t be eating) and Anna doesn’t feel well (translation: won’t be eating), I could go a little further afield without caring a whole lot if they were going to like it or not. The answer came from the depths of my “I really ought to cook this someday” file, courtesy of Gourmet magazine, August 1996.

Following the instructions precisely, I dutifully hauled out my mandoline slicer before realizing that I could perfectly well slice the fennel without it; quarters are easy to deal with since they lay flat (just don’t open the wine until this part is done – you really do want a steady hand!). Literally every other thing was already in my fridge or pantry; I’m frequently grateful for the wide/weird array of things we keep on hand, because it lets me try things like this on the fly without spending a fortune at the grocery store or searching all over for specific ingredients. The whole thing came together in the amount of time it took to boil some water for pasta, steam the asparagus and slice up a Costco rotisserie chicken, and I’ll definitely be making it again.

The author of this particular recipe specifically points out that this is Italian-inspired rather than Italian classic. That’s close enough to the Mediterranean for me.

 Penne with Fennel, Currants, and Pine Nuts

1 large fennel bulb, quartered and core removed
3 scallions, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon fennel seed, ground in in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle (yes, I have one, it’s very convenient for small jobs like this)
6 anchovy fillets, rinsed and patted dry and minced very fine (seriously, keep anchovies in your fridge. They’re super useful in saucy things of all sorts, they keep forever, and I swear they won’t make your pasta taste fishy)
1/3 cup dried currants
½ cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil (bust out the good stuff for this – you can really taste it here)
1 pound penne pasta
½ cup fresh bread crumbs, lightly toasted (in the toaster oven, fer cryin’ out loud – it’s bad enough you have to boil water for pasta!)
1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
Fresh lemon juice, to taste

Slice the fennel as thinly as you possibly can. In a bowl large enough to hold – and toss – the pasta, combine the fennel and all the ingredients through the pasta. Let this sit for 30 minutes.

Cook the pasta until al dente, drain, and toss immediately with the fennel mixture. Add in the bread crumbs, pine nuts, salt and pepper, and lemon juice and toss again. Add more salt, pepper, or lemon as needed and serve warm or room temperature.

Served with: Casas del Bosque 2016 Sauvignon Blanc (Chile). Grapefruit, grass, and apricot on the nose and lots of grapefruit and mineral on the palate. It really went well with the fennel and lemon juice. I’m not normally a big Sauvignon Blanc fan but this was a nice pairing; I would definitely buy this bottle again and maybe try it with a citrusy seafood dish.