Combo Recipe for Stuffed Tomatoes

In search of more ways to eat tomatoes, lest we get bored with the excesses of summer, I found a couple recipes for stuffed tomatoes.  I've never tried stuffing tomatoes before.  The deterrent was the daintiness.  It didn't seem like stuffed tomatoes would be filling and I was afraid to cover up the amazing flavor of garden fresh tomato with something as mundane as bread crumbs. 

I took all my cookbooks off the shelf and put them on the bed and then sat in the middle and one by one checked for stuffed tomato recipes.  In the end, there weren't that many cookbooks with stuffed tomato recipes. I did find two that I was excited about.  One in the Blueberry Hill Cookbook and one in Nourishing Traditions.  The first was simply egg with cheese and chives on top and the second was a bread crumb stuffing.  They turned out very good individually but together they were amazing.  The egg kind of poached in the tomato cup and the bread crumbs soaked up a little moisture making a stuffing.  Together they balanced the carbohydrate and protein with the acid tomato making a completely delicious meal. 

Plus the two recipes complimented each other nicely.  Making the two recipes really didn't take that much more time than making just one.  Both recipes can bake together in the same casserole dish and for the same amount of time.  So you get what looks like a fancy complex meal but with out all that work. 

The following recipe is for the combo of egg and bread crumb stuffed tomatoes.  It makes two dinner sized servings or four side dishes. 

Stuffed Tomato Combo

8 large ripe tomatoes

4 eggs

2 slices of whole grain bread

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons chives, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh basil

1 tablespoons fresh parsley

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1:  Cut the blossom ends off the tomatoes and scoop the insides out being careful not to pierce the walls of the tomato.  Lightly salt the insides of the tomatoes and place them in a buttered casserole.  The tomatoes should fit snugly so they can't slide around much. 

Step 2:  Chop the bread in a food processor until it is fine crumbs.  Add butter, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, basil and parsley.  Pulse a few times to blend it all together.  Set aside. 

Step 3: Drop an uncooked egg - careful, don't break it! - into four tomatoes.  Sprinkle a half tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and some chives over each egg. Then fill the remaining tomatoes with bread crumb mixture.  Top each cup with half tablespoon Parmesan cheese.   

Step 4:  Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes or until eggs are set. 

It's tomato time here on my blog. This month I'll be looking at different ways to preserve and eat tomatoes. Check out my first post where there are lots of inspiring comments for how to enjoy tomatoes. I am also adding links to the tomato posts as they are published so you will be able to find them together. Check it out here: Tomato Recipes and Ideas.

This post was submitted to: wildyeastblog.com