Sausage and egg, Italian style. The sausage meat is taken out of its casing so it cooks more quickly and allows all the meat flavours to mingle with the onions and fennel. Then you add beaten eggs to make a frittata – essentially an open omelette. Finish it off with melted mozzarella. There’s no need to use your best buffalo milk mozzarella for this – any good quality cow’s milk mozzarella will do.
Heat a non-stick, heavy-based, ovenproof frying pan, add a dash of oil and gently sauté the onion with the fennel seeds and a pinch of salt until soft and lightly caramelising.
Meanwhile, remove the sausage meat from the skin.
Once the onions are cooked, crumble the sausage meat into the pan, breaking it into small chunks with a wooden spoon. Fry over a medium heat until cooked through and coloured on the outside.
Beat the eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley and 25g of the Parmesan. Pour the mixture over the meat, mix well and cook over a medium-low heat for 5–7 minutes, or until the frittata is almost set.
Preheat the grill until hot. Arrange the mozzarella over the frittata in a single layer and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Place the pan under the grill for 3–4 minutes, or until the egg is cooked through and the mozzarella melted, bubbling and lightly browned.
Set aside to cool slightly, then transfer to a serving board. Cut into wedges to serve.
HOW TO SOFTEN FENNEL SEEDS
Some people worry about fennel seeds being too hard and getting stuck in their teeth. If so, you can always soak them in cold water for 10 minutes and drain them before cooking. This will soften them up nicely.