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1
Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
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2
Get a saucepan of salted water started boiling.
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3
Slice each pepper in half lengthwise, cutting right through the green stalk end and leaving it intact.
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4
It won't be eaten, but adds much to the look of the finished dish.
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5
Remove all the seeds and the white membrane.
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6
Place the pepper halves on a baking sheet.
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7
Drain the tomatoes (you don't need the juice) and divide them into eight equal portions, placing each portion inside a pepper half.
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8
Pare off any brownish bits of fennel and slice the bulbs first into quarters and then again into eighths, carefully keeping the layers attached to the root end.
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9
Put the fennel into the boiling water and blanch for 5 minutes.
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10
Drain into a colander and as soon as they're cook inough to handle, arrange two slices in each pepper half.
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11
Sprinkle 1 teaspoons olive oil over each once, using a brush to brush the oil around the edges and sides of the pepper.
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12
Lightly crush the pepper berries, coriander and fennel seeds with a pestle and mortar.
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13
Sprinkle these evenly all over the fennel and peppers and finish off with a grinding of rock salt.
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14
Bake the peppers for about 1 hour on a high shelf in the oven until they are soft and the skin wrinkled and nicely tinged with brown.
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15
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the lemon juice, cool and serve garnished with the spring onion, if using.
