Italian · Authentic-ish Italian
Finocchi Gratinati
279 kcal a serving, against 352 for the traditional version. That is 73 kcal off, or 21%, with 17.9g of protein. Serves 4. 55 minutes.
What the traditional version is
Wedges of fennel boiled until tender, then baked in a dish under a thick blanket of bechamel made with equal parts butter and flour, whole milk, and a heavy grating of parmesan cheese until bubbling and golden.
What changed, and what each change costs
50g of butter and 500ml of whole milk down to 15g of butter and 400ml of semi-skimmed milk
A traditional roux uses equal weights of fat and flour. That's a massive load of fat before you even add the cheese. Swapping to semi-skimmed milk and cutting the butter drastically reduces the heavy, cloying feel of the dish.
What it costs you. You lose that glossy mouthfeel that only a butter-heavy sauce gives you. The low-butter technique means you have to whisk a flour slurry into hot milk rather than cooking out a roux, which takes a bit more attention to avoid lumps.
Adding 150g of lean cooked ham to the dish
Fennel and sauce is a side dish. I wanted a main. Adding torn pieces of lean ham turns this into a complete plate of food. It brings a huge hit of savoury substance that the original completely lacks.
What it costs you. It makes it a meat dish instead of a vegetarian one. If you want to keep it meat-free, you can leave the ham out, but you'll need to find your substance somewhere else because the vegetables won't do it.
Boiling the fennel is swapped for roasting it first
Boiling fennel makes it waterlogged, which then bleeds into your carefully made sauce and ruins the texture. Roasting it first concentrates the flavour, drives off the excess water and adds a bit of colour.
What it costs you. It adds 25 minutes to your cooking time and uses an extra roasting tray. So: a necessary step if you want the sauce to stay thick. A quick fix was never on the table once the fat came out.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 352 | 279 |
| Protein | 15g | 17.9g |
| Fat | 19.7g | 12.7g |
| Saturated fat | 11.8g | 5.9g |
| Carbohydrate | 30.8g | 25.3g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 4.3g | 6.4g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Italian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, milk.
The method is in the book
This is a brilliant winter dinner. You get the sweet, charred edges of the fennel, the salty bite of the ham, and a thick cheese sauce that comforts you without knocking you out. The original is a great side dish, but this version stands on its own two feet.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Italian, along with 59 more. It is not out yet. The swap kit is free in the meantime.