Braised fennel

Any method of cooking fennel that doesn’t throw away the flavour with the water is good but this is one of the best, I think. To cook fennel with pasta I always stew slices of it in olive oil or butter first and toss the lot into the pasta dish. Fennel is excellent also in a stock base because it leaks its flavour so easily into water. It is really important that you get fennel bulbs that are very firm, white and preferably fat - endlessly removing expensive, stringy layers can be very depr