Roasted Fennel with Mashed Potatoes and Sausage

I have been wanting to cook with fennel for a while, but just did not get around it.
It is probably found in the grocery stores, produce section all year long and it has a fairly decent price.
According to the info tag attached to the fennel bulb, it tastes like licorice and you are supposed to discard the stem and leaves and only use the white bulb - cooking with it as you would with any other root vegetable.



I personally liked it and baked 3/4 of it at 450 F for 25 minutes, after tossing it with oil, salt and pepper.
And to go with that I made mashed potatoes which I boiled for 30 minutes


and then mashed with butter, milk and sour cream to make them smooth, creamy and delicious.
As for the meat in my dish - I used sausage meat to make meat balls or sausage balls which I fried for 2 minutes, with a lid on.


Then the rest of 1/4 of the bulb went in a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and salad dressing.

Bottom line, fennel is delicious both used fresh and roasted.
Good appetite !

We recently had a wedding in the family and I have here a picture of the beautiful fondant covered cake. The groom's cake was shaped into a beer mug. They both tasted amazing !
*** I have some upload problems...will come back to it tomorrow (that's me below)