Thing Number Fifteen - Mazzamurru

This is basically an attempt at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's version of this Sardinian bread-and-tomato gratin.  Normally I'd scope out other versions of a recipe and combine together the best bits, but in this case I can't find many (the Winifred Pudding problem again), and most of the ones I did come across seemed to involve just layering up the ingredients, letting them soak, and eating them like that, which does rather play into my horror of squishy food.  (I did also come across this recipe, the ingredients for which call for 'fairies'.  Wasn't really sure where to begin with that, shopping-wise).  So, I'm pretty much doing what Hugh says.

Start by gently cooking some onion in a glug of olive oil until it's soft.  (This is a 'some' sort of recipe; quantities aren't desperately important.  For the curious, I used two small onions.)

Add a clove of finely chopped garlic and cook until that's had a chance to soften, too.

Sling in two tins of tomatoes...

...and add a bay leaf and some salt, pepper, and sugar.  (Again with the 'some'.  Add a pinch of each now, and then taste the sauce later to see whether it needs more of anything.  And yes, you do want sugar; it helps to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes.)

Let the sauce simmer gently for ten minutes or so - long enough for the tomatoes to lose that 'tinned' taste they have to begin with.

Meanwhile, prepare the bread.  You want probably a couple of hundred grams - I used about half of a small loaf.  This was one of those ones where the supermarket have sliced it bizarrely thinly; and actually those thin slices are quite good for this.  I cross-cut the slices into smaller bits, to make it easier to layer up later.

You also want some (yes, I know) cheese.  I've gone with a mixture - a ball of mozzarella, plus some grated pecorino and cheddar.  Go with what you like and have handy (as long as it isn't something that'll be totally bizarre with tomatoes.)

Once the sauce has had its simmer, spread half of it over the base of an oven-proof dish.

Then add a layer of half the bread (this is where triangular pieces come in handy for fitting everything together)...

...and sprinkle on a layer of half the cheese.  (It wouldn't hurt for each of these first halves to be the small half.)  Also drizzle on a bit of olive oil - I used the basil oil from crouton week, because it was there and because I thought the flavour would add something.

Now it's time for round two, building a second layer of each element using what's left.  Then stick the whole thing in a medium oven for twenty minutes to half an hour, 'til it's golden.

Hugh reckons to give it ten minutes after it comes out of the oven 'to settle', by which I take it he means to meld together a bit more and develop some structural integrity.

The verdict

I'm really in two minds on this.  The flavour is great, and the golden, cheese-encrusted top layer is - well, it's golden and cheese-encrusted.  What else does it need?

And then there's the bottom layer of bread.  Which is so so squishy.  I don't do squishy.  Maybe you do, in which case that won't bother you; personally, if I were doing this again, I'd be tempted to make it wider and shallower - a single layer rather than two - and then it would be pretty much perfect.