Ottolenghi's caramelised fennel tarte tatin recipe

This caramelised fennel and grape tarte tatin makes a classic apple dessert savoury, with saffron and olives stopping the fennel and grapes tasting purely sweet under puff pastry.

The recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi's new cookbook, Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO, published this month. It follows dessert tarte tatin logic: fennel caramelises in butter and sugar, pastry goes on top, it bakes, then flips onto a plate caramelised-side up.

Ingredients

Sear the fennel first, or it stews instead of caramelising once it meets the butter and sugar.

• 1 tbsp plain flour, for dusting
• 320 g sheet all-butter puff pastry
• 2 large fennel bulbs (about 550 g), fronds reserved
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp demerara sugar
• 80 g fridge-cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
• ¼ tsp saffron threads, steeped in 1 tbsp boiling water, 5 minutes
• Salt and black pepper
• ⅛ tsp flaked sea salt
• 70 g seedless red or green grapes
• 45 g pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Roll the pastry into a 28cm circle and chill it while you prepare the fennel.
2. Trim the fennel stalks 1cm above the bulb, keeping the fronds. Slice the stalks thinly, halve each bulb and cut into six wedges, four if small, thin enough to caramelise but thick enough to hold when flipped.
3. Heat the oil in a 26cm ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sear the fennel cut-side down 2 minutes a side until golden, season, and set aside; searing first stops it stewing later.
4. Wipe the pan and return to medium-low heat. Add the sugar, butter, saffron with its water, salt and pepper. Stir 3 minutes until caramelised, add the grapes and fennel tops, then arrange the fennel on top, cut side up, olives scattered over.
5. Lay the chilled pastry over the pan, tuck the edges inside the rim, and cut a small cross in the centre for steam. Bake 25 minutes until crisp and deep gold, then rest 5 minutes before flipping, so the caramel sets without running.
6. Set a plate larger than the pan on top and invert both in one motion, fennel side up. Scatter over the fronds and flaked salt, and serve warm.

A starter that also works as lunch

Ottolenghi built this to sit between courses, sturdy enough for a light lunch with a green salad, in the same register as this autumn's quince and dolcelatte salad. Skip the saffron's soak and the caramel colours unevenly. If kalamata olives feel too assertive, a milder Niçoise keeps the same balance.