FENNEL RAMEKINS

By pat1908

Samuel's Recipe. Richard is still wondering what a Ramekin is?????
Delicious taste hinting of anise.

Ingredients

• 1 lg fresh fennel bulb per ramekin
• olive oil
• salt
• butter
• pepper
• prosciutto (German styled thinly sliced smoked ham . Lean bacon partially fried may be substituted.
• Parmigiano reggiano, gran padano or pecorino romano

Preparation

Step 1

Use sharp knife to cut hard core out of bottom of fennel bulb. Cut stems off, essentially removing all green growth. Peel off outer layer of bulb that is hard, dry, damaged or dirty. (Reccommend to peel off whole outler layer but some edible fennel can be lost by doing this). Cut cleaned fennel bulb in half lengthwise. Continue to cut into wedges lengthwise, perhaps and inch wide.

Cook fennel in lightly boiling salted whater with a few drops of olive oil until fennel begins to soften (al dente stage). Cooking time is usually 15-20 mins.

Grease interior of remekins with melted butter. Stuff bottom of reamekin with fennel. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cover with thin layer of prosciutto or it's substitue (see ingredients). Repeat with second layer of fennel and prosciutto. Grate the fresh cheese (see ingred list) generously on top. Drizzle melted butter over top.

Bake at 350-400 degrees until cheese melts and top is getting brown and crisp.