Last week I found myself in possession of some apples left over from the 7th Street Garden fundraiser pie extravaganza and decided to bust out my crock pot for the first time in many months and turn the apples into applesauce.  Strolling around my neighborhood farmers market, I came upon some beautiful fennel and . . . for some reason . . . got it in my head that fennel-apple-sauce would be a good thing.  So I asked a few friends at the market what they thought of the idea.  The first three responses were not encouraging, but were mostly based on a general dislike of fennel by these friends.  The fourth response came from one of DC's best chefs, who was far more encouraging—he thought it could work well, so long as I avoided potential texture problems by slicing the fennel laterally, rather than vertically, which was my plan from the outset.

So home I went, fennel in hand, primed for a little experimentation.  I decided to keep the recipe super simple, omitting the typical applesauce spices—cinnamon, clove, etc.—so as not to overwhelm the delicate fresh fennel flavor.  In the end, I'm glad I wasn't discouraged by the naysayers.  This is a great spin on standard applesauce for those of us who like fennel.  Despite the seemingly large amount of fennel in the recipe, the fennel flavor is delicate.  If you want a really pronounced fennel flavor, try throwing in a few fennel seeds, as was recommended by the chef I discussed this with at the market.  I opted to leave the fennel seeds out, to see what the simple combination of fresh apples and fresh fennel would produce.  I dig it.  It was well worth the minimal effort involved.

• 15 apples*
• 4 fennel bulbs with stalks*
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 cup lemon juice

1. Peel and core the apples, then slice them thinly using a mandoline or knife.
2. Remove the base of the fennel bulb and continue slicing the fennel laterally and thinly using a mandoline or knife.  Use not only the bulb, but the entire plant.
3. Combine the apples, fennel, sugar and lemon juice in a crock pot and cook on the high setting for 3-4 hours, until completely broken down as pictured above.