Warm the water in a small saucepan and dissolve the yeast in it. Straight away, before it cools down, pour it into a bowl and add the flour a little at a time, stirring well with a whisk until you obtain a smooth, fairly liquid batter. Add the fennel seeds, stir again, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for an hour. In the meanwhile, drain the sun-dried tomatoes of their oil, open them out and pat them with kitchen paper.

When the batter has risen, put a large, deep frying pan on the stove with plenty of oil in it. When it’s hot enough (try with a piece of bread: if it fries straight away, the temperature is right) dip the tomatoes in the batter, making sure they’re well coated, and drop them into the pan one after another. When they’re golden brown on both sides (keep a close eye on them because they cook quickly!), use a perforated spoon to take them out of the oil and lay them on kitchen paper to dry. Serve these tempting and absolutely mouth-watering tomatoes while they’re still hot. Buon appetito!