Fettuccine with Prawns and Baby Fennel in Pernod Cream Sauce

Pasta; the ultimate comfort food. Prawns; grill, them sauté them, marinate them, poach them, there’s not many ways a prawn doesn’t taste good. Fennel; raw in a salad, braised in a stew, diced in a soup, unique and delicious no matter how you cook it. Pernod and cream; need I say more? Although ingredients can be good on their own, combining them with other good ingredients does not always work. In this case however the combined dish is equal to and greater than the sum of its delicious parts. The pasta is cooked perfectly al dente, the prawns are sautéed until just tender, the fennel is cooked and loses its raw power and becomes mild and soft, and finally the entire dish is united in the rich cream sauce and made a tad more decadent with the distinctive yet subtle flavour of the Pernod. Although simple to prepare it is a dish worthy of a special occasion and deserves an equally special wine, I recommend a sauvignon blanc on the drier side of its fruit.