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Food and Wine Matching
Australian Wine Regions

Fennel Risotto

  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small handful of Arborio rice per person
  • 2-3 cups of chicken stock – make your own with a chicken, carrot, onion and celery
  • Half a teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
  • 2 tablespoons Pernod
New Zealand Wine Regions
Food and Wine Matching
Remove outer layer and centre core of the fennel, and discard. Chop the remainder very finely. You will need about a cup and a half of chopped fennel. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the fennel and soften, add the rice and coat thoroughly. Add half a teaspoon salt, enough chicken stock to just cover all the rice and simmer, stirring occasionally. Continue to add the stock as the rice absorbs it. After 15 minutes taste the rice. It should be ‘al dente’, that is a bit firm, not mushy. If it’s still too firm, give it another one or two minutes. Add Pernod and parsley and cook for 30 seconds. Finally, turn off the heat and add the remaining butter and Parmesan and a good grind of black pepper and serve. The consistency should be like very thick soup – neither too wet nor too solid. (Serves 4)

For asparagus risotto, replace the fennel with half a chopped onion and a bunch of asparagus finely sliced: delete the Pernod.

Serve with Tyrrell's Lost Block Semillon 2005 £8.50
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