#13. Mozzarella Cheese with Fennel and New Potatoes

Another dud from the Easy Vegetarian book. These were arranged in fancy little stacks. The hyper-annoying phrase "amuse-bouche" comes to mind. The first bite was interesting, but I got sick of the overly-intense flavor fairly soon after that. Also, the recipe said only to "season generously" (with salt and pepper) between each layer in the stacks, and there was a fine line between too little and too much. Same with the vinegar and oil.

Here's the fennel bulb:

It was tiny (that's a bartender's cutting board it's on, for limes and such) and cost $3. 

I didn't have a mandoline to cut the fennel fine, so it was difficult to make the stacks:

I finally got one stack to stand. I took a picture before adding the balsamic vinegar because the fancy photo in the book had a beautiful white-and-off-white color scheme that made it obvious they'd done the same:

Here it is with the vinegar:

The stack fell shortly after I took this photo.