56 aniseed recipes

Lima beans with jalapeno, sunflower seeds, tomato, onion, and fresh cilantro. A quick, low-calorie plant-based side dish with some heat and crunch.

Homemade Italian pepperoni sticks smoked and dried from scratch with beef, anise, allspice, and hot chili peppers. A serious charcuterie project for sausage makers.

Hazelnut and anisette biscotti are twice-baked Italian cookies flavored with toasted hazelnuts, anise seed, lemon zest, and espresso powder. Crisp Christmas cookies for dunking in coffee.

Herbed tomato spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, red wine, aniseed, and four fresh herbs added at the end to preserve their bright flavor. A vegetarian sauce simmered from scratch.

Mystery bread made with three flours, fruit juices instead of sugar, crushed aniseed, orange zest, and cinnamon. A fragrant yeast bread with a crispy golden crust and a subtly sweet, complex crumb.

Aromatic Hyderabadi curry powder with 14 dry-roasted spices including cardamom, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, curry leaves, and dried red chilies. Stores up to 6 months.

Vegan Bolivian-style huminta with quinoa, tofu, and winter squash blended into a savory baked casserole. Tahini and anise give the dish nutty depth and a faintly licorice finish.

Poaching pears in red wine is a classic way to make pears into a dessert. Pears are poached in red wine with star anise, cloves and cinnamon sticks infused, which makes the pears tender, soft and tasty. Serve the warm pear with the syrup sauce and some good quality ice cream.

An impossibly delicious almond biscotti recipe; dip it into that hot cup of tea or coffee, it melts in your mouth, and you will swear it’s a perfect bite of food.

This recipe comes from Italy by way of Argentina. Maxwell Mowry of Charleston got this recipe when he lived in Buenos Aires in the early l970s. Since there are more people of Italian ancestry in Argentina than of Spanish ancestry, it is not surprising to find panettone there, where it is called in Spanish pan dulce, meaning 'sweet bread.' At Christmas in Argentina, pan dulce is eaten accompanied by sparkling apple cider. Houseware shops in Argentina sell special tall cylindrical springform pans to bake the pan dulce, but an empty, greased 1-pound coffee can may be used.

An Indian inspired recipe is full of flavor, a great side dish with some grilled meat.

A savory and hearty soup made with succulent beef, hot chili sauce and bean sprouts.

Double anise almond biscotti with anise extract, ground star anise, and slivered almonds in a twice-baked Italian cookie. Crisp enough to dunk in espresso or vin santo.

Italian spring bread for the bread machine, a lightly sweet honey loaf scented with star anise and studded with golden raisins. Perfect for Easter brunch and morning toast.

Anise almond biscotti baked twice for that signature crunch. Shaped into horseshoes, sliced, and dried low and slow. Keeps for weeks in a jar. Built for dunking.

Sambusak (Sephardic stuffed pastries) with a yeasted anise-scented dough filled with spiced ground beef, deep-fried to golden. A traditional Jewish meat pastry for holidays and gatherings.