Pasta with Carmelized Fennel and Onion with Sausage (FM)

• Salt
• 3 large or 4 medium fennel bulbs, cored and sliced
• 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
• Black pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat
• 1/2 cup white wine, optional
• 8 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage

Mise en place.

Cook sausage in 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until nicely browned.

Cook onion and fennel over medium-low heat, stirring every 5 minutes until the vegetables have given up their liquid and are almost sticking to the pan.  This should probably take you a good half hour.

Later you add two more tablespoons of olive oil, raise the heat to medium-high and try to brown this stuff.  Bittman suggests that you can do the last part in 5-10 minutes.  I'm sure I was at it for a bit longer but couldn't bring myself to try for "nicely browned."

Pretty satisfying dish with just a handful of ingredients.  Crazy how much the fennel reduced in volume after all that caramelizing makes sense.
The main recipe does not include sausage, but I don't think I would've had as positive an experience if I had left out the hot Italian sausage I used.  There's even a sidebar on the page about adding small amounts of meat to pasta sauces from the beginning.