Super easy recipe adopted from Saveur magazine (one of my favorite magazine that I hope to get a job with one day…)
Satisfying and beautiful – looks like you slaved over a stove for HOURS! but NOT. Take advantage of sun-kissed juicy tomatoes now available at your local farmers market. You can get them at a grocery store but they seem lifeless and so sterile. No umami tomato taste and that’s what you want.
It’s great as a meal in itself or makes for a wonderful side dish. Mine came out tasting bit like Spanish rice – so I guess you could use it instead of that too. Certainly easier, I think…
Like two peas-in-a-pod – I only needed to make two of them for me and honey. Yes – I was doubtful but one per person will get you full.
Ingredients:
Whole tomatoes
Arborio Rice (~ 1/2 cup)
Parsley, Basil
Salt/Pepper
Olive Oil
Onion
It goes like this.
1) Take a juicy ripe tomato and cut the stem top and set aside. This will be your “cap” that you will put back unto the stuffed tomato later. Scrape out all the “inner tomato” leaving the tomato “shell”, reserving the juice and the tomato “meat”.
2) Sautee 1/2 of a minced onion with olive oil until slightly brown and translucent. You could also add & sautee some shiitaki mushrooms for extra flavor and texture.
3) In a bowl, mix arborio rice that’s been rinsed twice (to minimize the extra gluten, great for risotto, less so for stuffed tomato rice, I think) with the sauteed onion, minced fresh garlic, olive oil, chopped parsley/basil, salt and pepper to taste. I happen to have some extra tomato juice from a canned tomato which I added to make the rice bit more flavorful and moist.
4) Stuff the rice mixture into the tomato, drizzle some olive oil on top and cap it with the tomato stem.
5) Roast at 375 (convection) for ~50 min. Cool for ~20 min before diving in. You can also bake any extra in a casserole next to the stuffed tomatoes like I did which cooks up nicely and crusty (for those of you who like the crispy rice at the bottom of dolsot bibimbap or paella with socarrat.
two tablespoons of love; one for food, one for life. bon appetit!
I’ve seen you and mike…your appetites can’t be like normal humans 🙂
do you mean we eat like birds or do you mean that mike and i have quite the appetite? confused. either way – i will say that we’re not like “normal humans”:)