Tomato and fennel bread

Preheat the oven to 160ºC.
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.
Place in the oven and bake at
160ºC for 35-40 minutes, or until puffy, golden and cooked right
through. If you’re not sure the bread is cooked, turn it over and rap
your knuckles on its underside. If you produce a dry, hollow sound, the
bread is ready.
Slide onto a bread board and serve piping hot, with
shavings of cold butter, or a bowl of fruity olive oil for dipping.

Reprinted
with permission of Scrumptious
South Africa.
To visit Scrumptious
South Africa’s blog, click
here.