The sautéed fennel with olives is a light and tasty side dish, a different way to enjoy fennel, an ingredient often recommended in diets for its low-calorie intake and notable purifying properties. A vegetable that surely deserves to be re-evaluated also for its extraordinary versatility: there are many recipes with cooked and raw fennel that you can try this season, to prepare both delicious appetizers, like Mediterranean-style baked fennel, and light first courses, such as fennel velouté, as well as appetizing side dishes, like roasted fennel with orange. The sautéed fennel with olives, in particular, is a very simple and quick recipe that allows you to add character to this vegetable without overdoing it with calories: just a bit of onion, some olives, a few capers, and some pine nuts to make the sautéed fennel a delicious side dish suitable for any occasion. The extra touch, if you love sweet and sour flavors, is to add a tablespoon of previously soaked raisins at the end of cooking: it perfectly complements the other elements and makes the sautéed fennel a refined and decidedly special dish.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4 Servings
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, and Spring
- Energy 125.30 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 6.13 (g) of which sugars 4.54 (g)
- Proteins 2.81 (g)
- Fat 9.78 (g) of which saturated 1.26 (g)of which unsaturated 2.16 (g)
- Fibers 4.58 (g)
- Sodium 174.72 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 170 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for sautéed fennel with olives and capers
- 2 fennel bulbs (about 2.2 lbs)
- 1/4 onion
- 2.5 oz olives (weighed with pit)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp salted capers
- 1 tbsp raisins
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
Tools
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pan non-stick, large with lid
How to prepare sautéed fennel with olives and capers
To prepare the sautéed fennel with olives, start by cleaning the fennel: remove the stalks and the bottom (1), then slice them into approximately 1/8 inch thick slices (2). Soak the raisins in warm water (3).
Pit the olives and desalinate the capers, then coarsely chop them (4). Finely chop the onion and sauté it in the oil over low heat (5). Add the fennel (6), lightly salt them, and let them absorb the flavors for a minute, stirring frequently.
Add the lemon juice (7) and half a cup of hot water (8). Cover with a lid and let simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes (9).
When the fennel is tender (10), add the olives, capers, pine nuts, and squeezed raisins (11). Mix well and let it absorb the flavors for a couple of minutes, allowing the cooking juices to evaporate and the fennel to lightly color, then turn off the heat (12).
Sautéed fennel with olives can be enjoyed both hot and at room temperature. Given their rich flavor, they can also be used to garnish bruschetta to be served as an appetizer.
Storage
You can store the cooked fennel in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days.
Tips and Variations
If you don’t like capers and raisins, you can omit them, the sautéed fennel will still be delicious. As for the olives, I find that those with a strong flavor, like Gaeta or Taggiasca olives, work really well.
