Ottolenghi’s Fennel & Tomato Gratin

(serves 4 | 1 hour and 10 minutes  | easy)

From my series of #iorestoacasa lockdown recipes.

Quarantine is becoming challenging, I must admit. So for today’s lunch I wanted to make a veggie dish that would be scrumptious, in the hopes of improving my mood (it did!). I turned to Ottolenghi’s cookbook for some inspiration and found this great, DELICIOUS, recipe.

2 large fennels, washed and cut into slices 1.5 cm thick – handful of cherry tomatoes – 200ml single cream – 3 garlic cloves – extra virgin olive oil – salt and pepper – 1 bunch of thyme 

for the crumble: 100g 00 flour – 100g grated parmigiano – 66g butter – 33g sugar 

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the chopped fennel in a large bowl with some olive oil, salt, pepper, the crushed garlic cloves and thyme. Toss everything or mix with a spoon to make sure fennel is well coated. 
  2. Place the fennel in a baking dish and pour the cream over it. 
  3. To make the crumble, place the flour and sugar in a bowl, then rub the butter into the bowl. Mix the butter with the flour and sugar and keep rubbing until you’ve achieved what looks like a coarse flour. Add the parmigiano and mix. Drizzle the crumble over the fennel evenly, cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes. 
  4. Once the 45 mins have passed, remove the baking dish from the oven, add the whole cherry tomatoes on top and place back in the oven, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.