Creamy White Bean and Fennel Casserole
Fennel continues to fill me with bafflement, so I am not sure why I was so eager to cook "Creamy White Bean and Fennel Casserole" (NYT Cooking; subscription required), but it's been on my list for a while. I guess I thought it looked like a warm and comforting dish for a chilly day.
While we haven't had a lot of chilly days lately, fall finally arrived really very suddenly around 6pm on Wednesday, so Thursday's the day I retrieved this recipe and pulled out my cast-iron skillet.
And that was actually the only way in which I screwed up this dish: it's annoying when your recipe calls vaguely for a "large" skillet and then it turns out your skillet isn't large enough. I figured it out quickly, and proceeded in a Le Creuset pot instead. But that meant later having to wash the skillet AND the pot, and for the extra dish to wash, I shall never, ever forgive NYT Cooking's Aaron Hutcherson.
I had doubts by the time I got the dish into the oven. What had I been thinking, I wondered? Fennel is DEEPLY WEIRD. Why did I think this would taste good? But there was nothing to be done at that point. This was going to be dinner, deeply weird or not.
And then, miraculously, it tasted good! My backup dancers apologetically ate AROUND the fennel, to be sure, but they liked the taste of the dish a lot, and the beans, and I did too. It was not licorice-like in the least; it actually had a great blend of flavors, and a pleasant creamy texture. I do think it would make a better side dish than a main, though.
Needless to say, I did not serve a green salad alongside this dish, as Aaron Hutcherson suggested. It's like you don't even know me, Aaron.*
*Aaron Hutcherson does not, in fact, know me.
While we haven't had a lot of chilly days lately, fall finally arrived really very suddenly around 6pm on Wednesday, so Thursday's the day I retrieved this recipe and pulled out my cast-iron skillet.
And that was actually the only way in which I screwed up this dish: it's annoying when your recipe calls vaguely for a "large" skillet and then it turns out your skillet isn't large enough. I figured it out quickly, and proceeded in a Le Creuset pot instead. But that meant later having to wash the skillet AND the pot, and for the extra dish to wash, I shall never, ever forgive NYT Cooking's Aaron Hutcherson.
I had doubts by the time I got the dish into the oven. What had I been thinking, I wondered? Fennel is DEEPLY WEIRD. Why did I think this would taste good? But there was nothing to be done at that point. This was going to be dinner, deeply weird or not.
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| Pre-oven |
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| Post-oven |
And then, miraculously, it tasted good! My backup dancers apologetically ate AROUND the fennel, to be sure, but they liked the taste of the dish a lot, and the beans, and I did too. It was not licorice-like in the least; it actually had a great blend of flavors, and a pleasant creamy texture. I do think it would make a better side dish than a main, though.
Needless to say, I did not serve a green salad alongside this dish, as Aaron Hutcherson suggested. It's like you don't even know me, Aaron.*
*Aaron Hutcherson does not, in fact, know me.
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