For the bread dough

225 gms strong white bread flour

200 ml luke warm water

18 gms instant action yeast

½  tbs sugar

1 tbs seasalt flakes

1 tbs olive oil

For the filling

1 large ball mozzarella cheese

1/2 large red onion, finely sliced

500gms fresh cooked ham, chopped into chunks

1 bunch parsley, finely chopped

4 heaped tbs of finely chopped sundried tomatoes, with 1 tbs of olive oil from the jar

3 eggs, boiled and thickly sliced

½ head lettuce, washed and torn into rough pieces

For the flavour paste

2 tbs tomato puree

1 tbs good quality French whole grain mustard

1 tsp finely minced garlic

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup double cream

1/3 cup water

Place the flour in a wide, deep bowl and making a well in the center.

In a small bowl, mix the yeast, sugar, salt and oil. Now slowly add half the water and whisk briskly.

Add this to the well in the flour and start to bring it together slowly, combining the flour and the water. Slowly add the remaining water and start to pull the dough together, starting to mould and eventually knead.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic with no lumps or bumps. Now, the important part creating perfectly soft and fluffy bread is definitely the proving stage. This is when you give the yeast time to work it’s way through and it’s important that you are patient at this stage. For the first proving, I like to place my dough in a heavy ceramic or glass bowl and cover it tightly with cling film. This always seems to do the trick and once you leave your dough to rest in a warm place (I usually place it in my oven with just the ‘bulb’ level on ) for 30 minutes and you should see it double in size as shown in the photo.

Whilst this is happening, prep all your filling. Slice the red onion into very thin slices, grate the mozzarella cheese, chop the chives, the ham and finely chop the garlic chives and parsley. Mix all these together in a large bowl  along with the finely chopped sundried tomatoes. Place three eggs to boil and roughly tear up your lettuce leaves.

Mix the tomato puree, the French mustard, the finely chopped garlic, cream and water until it is a thick paste.

Once the eggs are boiled, peel and thickly slice.

After 30 minutes, pull out your dough onto a cold, floured surface. Roll it out as shown in a large rectangle. I like to keep the dough quite thin as it will puff up a lot as it cooks and you want a good balance between the dough and the filling.

Now liberally spread your prepared paste along the center of the dough, in a long smooth line. Spread your filling along the same line, finishing with pieces of egg and the lettuce leaves.

Now roll this up by pulling one side over the filling until covered and then do the same with the other. Pull both sides together to form as circle and squeeze the ends together.

Slide this onto a large wide baking dish and cover once again with cling film. Let it rest and prove for another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Place the roll in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until it is golden brown on the outside. It should have a crisp baked bread surface.

Remove and serve immediately piping hot from the oven. Alternatively, this is lovely the next day for brunch (or breakfast!!) – that’s if you have any left! I like to serve this with a really crunchy simple salad of radishes, lettuce and tomatoes  – really rustic and so very appetizing!