Finnocchio

Finnocchio (Florence fennel), p. 367

It is pleasing to note an increased interest in Finnocchio or Florence Fennel excellent as a salad and very good cooked or served naturally like celery.

1936, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, Herbs and Herb Gardening (Medici Society), page 93⁽¹⁺²⁾ ⁽¹⁾ Sweet Fennel (Fœniculum dulce) or Finnocchio, still one of the most popular vegetables in Italy, was apparently introduced into this country in early Stuart times. ⁽²⁾ Our native Fennel thrives in any soil, but Finnocchio needs a rich moist soil, frequent watering in times of drought, and when the bases of the stems swell they have to be partially earthed up, i.e. the tubers half covered.

1943, Jo Pagano, Golden Wedding (Random House), pages 84⁽¹⁾ and 268⁽²⁾ ⁽¹⁾ There were bowls of dried olives, swimming in olive oil and flavored with garlic and orange peel; there was celery, and sweetly aromatic finnocchio, and wafer thin Italian ham. ⁽²⁾ This was a big room, and my mother’s pride. It opened directly onto the back yard, where stood the stone oven, old-country style, in which my mother, once a week, baked her bread, and where she had her own little garden of fresh spices and Italian greens — basilica, finnocchio, Italian parsley, leaf-chicory, and so on.

Season and sauté a chicken in butter; add a little cream and three quartered finnocchio (already parboiled).

Sweet fennel (Foeniculum dulce) or Finnocchio appears to have been introduced into this country in early Stuart times and is a delicious vegetable if cooked in a good stock and served with a cream sauce.