ottolenghi's fennel, tomato & crumble gratin

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. #iomifermo

Serves 4

Ingredients 

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

for the crumble: 
100g flour 
100g Parmigiano 
66g butter 
33g sugar 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Place the chopped fennel in a large bowl with 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 in the cream. 
3. To make the crumble, place the flour and sugar in a bowl, and 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 baking dish from the oven, add the whole cherry tomatoes on top and place back in the oven, uncovered, for another 15 minutes. 

Enjoy!