This is the second of my flavoured bread recipes (see my recipe for artichoke and feta bread here), which make perfect loaves to take on a picnic.
Most supermarkets in South Africa that have in-house bakeries (Spar and 7/11 spring to mind) will sell you ready-to-bake dough, for a pittance, but you do need to ask at the counter for it. You can also buy dough from any commercial bakery.
Supermarket dough rises to an impressive height. Because it’s got so much va-va-voom, it’s not suitable for making pizzas (unless you like a very thick, doughy crust). But it is ideal for all sorts of flat (or flattish) flavoured breads, and is very forgiving. In other words, you can punch and stretch it fairly energetically without worrying about it collapsing into a sad old biscuit. Do take the time to press it out quite thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. There is no need to wait for these breads to rise after flavouring them; the dough will be very puffy already when you take it out of its bag. Supermarket dough keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Tomato and fennel bread
Makes 1 focaccia, or enough for 6 people
What you’ll need
600 g fresh white-bread dough
3 big cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
½ cup (125 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
a large sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves stripped and coarsley chopped
the finely grated zest of a small lemon
2 bulbs baby fennel, finely sliced
12 ripe cherry tomatoes, on the vine if possible
a few extra small sprigs of rosemary
flaky sea salt, or coarsely ground Kosher salt
milled black pepper
How to make tomato fennel bread
Heat the oven to 170ºC. Lightly grease a large baking tray and dust with a little flour. Press the dough (diagonally across the sheet) into an elongated oval. Take your time about this. You will find that that dough tends to creep back a bit, but persevere with pushing and stretching until the dough is about a centimetre thick all over. Using your bunched fingers, make deep indentations all over the dough.
In a separate bowl, mix together the crushed garlic, olive oil, chopped rosemary and lemon zest. Pour three-quarters of this mixture over the dough surface and use your fingers to poke and prod it into the indentations. Scatter the sliced fennel and the cherry tomatoes over the bread and press them lightly into the dough. Drizzle the remaining quarter of flavoured olive oil all over the bread and tomatoes, and sprinkle the bread with plenty of salt and milled black pepper. Scatter the extra rosemary sprigs on top. Bake at 160ºC for 35-40 minutes, or until puffy, golden and cooked right through.
This recipe was originally published on Scrumptious SA.
My new cookbook, Scrumptious: Food for Family and Friends (Struik Lifestyle) is available at all leading bookstores in South Africa.
