Fennel Frond Pesto

It's the time of year I dream about. The other night we made chicken soup with carrots, potatoes, turnips, fennel, and summer squash, and the only ingredient that we didn't grow--counting the chicken--was the tomato paste.

I love fennel, cooked and raw, and so I am slightly sad that the bulbs in this year's crop turned out pretty shrimpy. Not enough sunlight? But the fronds are tall and thick and green and gorgeous. So, since the freezer is nearly out of nettle pesto from earlier this spring, I made some fennel frond pesto.

Smeared on homemade bread and covered with juicy jaune flamme tomatoes and crisp lemon cucumbers, it made the most perfect al fresco summer dinner.

Fennel Frond Pesto 
Makes about 2 cups
When I make pesto, I go by taste rather than by any recipe. I kept track generally of the amounts I used, but keep tasting and blending, tasting and blending as you make the pesto, adding more of anything as you go.

Fronds of 3 small fennel
Bulb of 1 small fennel
1 cup almonds (toasted, optionally; I did not)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese chunks
2 to 3 small garlic cloves, peeled
Juice from 3/4 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 cup olive oil

Blend up the fennel fronds and bulb in a food processor for about 30 seconds. Add the almonds, parmesan cheese, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and blend until the almonds are finely ground and don't crunch obviously in your mouth when you try some. With the blender running, add the olive oil until the pesto swirls in a smooth, continuous wave around the food processor bowl (no big balls of green rumbling around). Blend for another minute or two. I found that this pesto needed more blending than a basil or nettle pesto, because the little feathery fennel fronds took a while to not be a feathery texture in my mouth when I tried a bite.

Taste the pesto, adjust the lemon juice, salt, and pepper as needed. Blend some more. Let the pesto sit for at least 10 minutes before you use it for the flavors to meld together.

Serve as a bread spread with tomatoes, cucumbers, and/or feta cheese; toss with pasta; or freeze in an ice cube tray, then transfer to a freezer bag, where it will keep for a few months.