Pomodori Ripieni (Stuffed Tomatoes)

This is a classic Roman dish that was taught to my mother by a friend who’s Roman mother made it often. On my recent trip to Rome, the cab driver and I chatted about his methods for making this meal while he transported my husband and I to our residence for the week – such are Roman cab drivers!

These keep quite well in the fridge so make as many as you like, judging 1 per person, and save some for lunches the next day. 

Ingredients

– 6 large beefsteak tomatoes, ripe but not overly so

– 6 tablespoons of uncooked arborio rice (1 tablespoon per tomato)

– 2 small cloves of garlic

– fresh basil, a small bunch

– salt, peper, extra virgin olive oil

– 3 large yellow-fleshed potatoes

You can either make the preparations for this dish in the evening, ready for baking for a lunch or dinner the next day or, if pressed for time (and as my friendly Roman cab driver advised), a few hours in the morning is also enough for the flavours to mingle and the tomatoes to lose a bit of water.

Method

1. Slice the tops off to the tomatoes so that they each have a little ‘hat’, if you can keep the green bits attached, all the better, set hats aside. Scoop out each tomato using a knife and spoon, ensuring that the tomato stays whole with about ¼” thick wall intact. Place the flesh and water that comes out in a bowl, chopping up any bigger bits of flesh, set aside. Sprinkle each tomato cavity with a little salt, flip them upside down onto a plate and place their caps along side. Keep these in the fridge over night or until ready to bake (minimum 4 hours). 

2. Assign a table spoon of arborio rice (uncooked) for each tomato and place into the same bowl as the minced flesh. Peel and finely mince the garlic and add to the bowl, add the basil, torn up or chopped, and season the rice mixture with salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Set the bowl, covered with a plate or transferred to a container, into the fridge to sit with the tomatoes either overnight or for their minimum resting period. The tomatoes don’t need to be covered but you can put a large bowl over them as well.

3. About an hour before you want to serve, remove the tomatoes and rice from the fridge so they aren’t too cold when going into the oven. Set oven to 375ºF and loosely line a baking dish with parchment paper. The baking dish should be large enough to hold the tomatoes with some room around them. Peeling and slice the potatoes each into 4 wedges lengthwise (or 6 wedges or more if they are large potatoes). Season potatoes directly in the oven dish with salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Flip the tomatoes so that they are upright and evenly distribute the rice mixture amongst the tomatoes. Tuck the tomatoes in to the potatoes so that they stand upright. The tomatoes don’t need to touch the bottom of the dish but can. Place the caps on the tomatoes and drizzle with a little more extra virgin olive oil. Bake for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are done. 

Recipe is vegan and gluten free – no substitutions needed!