ziti with roasted fennel, lemon and basil

i continue to be inspired by anna hansen’s lemon, fennel and halloumi bruschetta – i’ve already used it as the basis for a salad, using potatoes in place of the bread, and now i’m swapping in pasta, instead.

i also decided to use a different cheese –fresh ricotta. this obviously didn’t need cooking so i followed the original recipe, just omitting the halloumi from the roasting tray. when it was ready i added my cooked ziti, some ricotta, purple and green basil plus a scattering of fresh fennel leaves from the garden.

it was delicious and i’ll definitely make this again – you do need quite large pasta shapes though, given the size of the fennel pieces; conchiglioni rigati would also work well. i think olives would be a good addition and will no doubt also try it with different cheeses – feta or goat’s cheese would both be nice.