Enough with the pizza dough already you say?  Needless to say, in a house of two who can’t seem to cook for less than ten there was pizza dough for days (reference my last post when I was only on day four or so). And with a request from the twittersphere (shout out to @FennelFriday) I am sharing my version of a caramelized fennel flatbread. 

After a week in the fridge my pizza dough was really nice and relaxed. So much so I could press it right into cracker thin submission. Oh, so then it’s not pizza and now flatbread so couldn’t possibly be sick of pizza – oh, sorry for sharing the chatter in my head. 

After going overboard with using fennel as a juice ingredient, it was time to reintroduce it to the sauté pan, to get it nice and sweet and caramelized. Team it with fav topper of the moment for moi, lemons and this is the result…

Caramelized Fennel Flatbread

1 ball of pizza/flatbread dough (last post for recipe)
1 Fennel bulb, thinly slice and reserve some of the fronds for garnish
1 lemon, sliced thin, thin, thin
1/2 cup (or so) kalamata olives pitted and cut in half
1/2 cup fresh mozzarella, sliced (no strict rule here, go with goat cheese, feta, or what you fancy)
generous pinch of thyme
extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan or cast iron skillet, add sliced fennel and just let it cook low and slow until it gets nicely caramelized. Season with some salt and pepper. Remove from stove and let cool.

Roll or press out dough (round, rectangle, free-form, or whatever floats your boat shape) . Place onto baking sheet (or pizza peel if putting onto a preheated pizza stone). Scatter the fennel on the dough, followed by the lemon slices, olives, cheese, thyme and then finish with a drizzle of olive oil (if you have a lemon-infused version go that route, you won’t regret). Bake for 5-7 minutes depending on your oven and how ‘cooked’ your like your flatbread.