Fennel Mayo
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: August 29, 2008

I love fennel. It grows like a weed in your garden and tastes deliciously sweet and licoricey. It's wonderfully fragrant and adds that certain missing something to many dishes. You know when you're making soup, you take a taste test and say, "it needs something, but I just can't put my finger on it"? Try tossing in some ground fennel seed - perfect.
We like it grilled, roasted with other root veggies, sliced fresh and tossed into salads. Recently I saw a recipe for fennel mayonnaise and thought it would be tasty on our grilled salmon. It was!
While this recipe calls for steaming the fennel I think roasting it would intensify the flavors beautifully. I'll be trying that next time.
Fennel Mayo
From La Cucina Italiana, October 2008
Trim and roughly chop 1 small fennel bulb. Steam until tender (about 5-7 minutes). Let cool to room temperature. In a blender puree the steamed fennel with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and a heaping 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt. With the blender running, drizzle in ¼ cup olive oil until smooth.
Makes ¾ cup
Excellent with fish and shellfish.

Comments:
Greg Bulmash
August 29, 2008

So something in the fennel acts as the emulsifier?  Normally, you use egg to emulsify and suspend the oil, but there's no egg in your recipe, so I have to assume the pureed fennel has an emulsifying quality.
zooey53

I've made similar dressings with roasted garlic and shallots-- roasted fennel sounds great, what a good idea.