Fennel and Tomato Gratin

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
1 tbspn olive oil	1 slice bread
1 head of fennel	25 gm parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic	1 lemon
200 gm chopped tomatoes	12 pitted black olives
	¼ tspn salt

Preparation

Cut fennel into thin wedges and reserve any fronds for later.
Chop the garlic.
Grate the parmesan cheese.
Make breadcrumbs from the slice of bread.
Finely chop the olives.
Zest the lemon.
Combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, lemon zest, fennel fronds (if any) and olives and mix thoroughly.
Butter an ovenproof dish.

Cooking

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the fennel, covered, over a low heat for 15 min.
Add the garlic and cook for 10 min.
Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, and simmer, uncovered, for 10 - 20 min until the fennel is soft (see notes).
Pour into the ovenproof dish.
Cover with the breadcrumb mixture, pat down, and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Put the ovendish into a cold oven, set to 190° C and bake from cold for 25 min.

Serving

Serve as is.

Notes

The time taken to cook the fennel will depend on the size of the wedges.
Some supermarkets package the fennel and remove the fronds. Fennel fronds are full of flavour but ¼ tspn fennel seeds could be used instead.
This can be prepared ahead of time and placed in an automatic oven, set as appropriate.