16.7.10

Roast tomatoes (or peppers) with breadcrumbs

I´ve always been of the opinion that tomatoes need nothing more than salt and olive oil, that heating up the house roasting things in summer is madness, and that stuffing things is a waste of time.
However, since moving to Scotland´s Acrtic Circle, I have had to rethink my tomato usage. Heating up the kitchen is not an issue, beleive me, and the tomatoes I find taste a lot better with cooking.

Yesterday I had four tomatoes that needed a bit of help, a hunk of bread that was at the tough/chewy stage, and a cold kitchen. I vaguely remembered a recipe from Canal House Cooking, pasta with roast stuffed tomatoes. So I set to, improvising, because I wasn´t about to bring my gleaming new iPad into a messy kitchen. It worked out great, as my recipe is easier , with less steps and pots to clean, and very very good, if I may say so.
You can serve them as hors d´ouvre, a starter, as a side dish, or with the pasta, and they´re better lukewarm, so it´s a perfect do ahead entertaining dish. Great.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC

Take your old bread, which should be old but not so ancient that it will crumble to fine dust. Put it in a small food processor with a couple of garlic cloves, some parsley leaves, salt, a drizzle of olive oil if you will (and anchovies if you like. I didn´t have any to hand, but they´d fit right in). Now comes the fiddly part: slice the tomatoes in half and scoop the seeds out, and add them to the crumbs.

Pulse. The crumbs should be still recognizable as such, about the size of small lentils, but you will end up with a wet sand sort of looking mess.

Now take your hollowed out tomatoes (or red peppers) and fill them with this mixture. Put them on a baking dish with a little bit of oil under them (no big deal) and roast for 90 minutes or so. You might have to cover them half way through with some foil if they brown too quickly.
They´re done when the tomatoes are very well cooked, with some charred spots, even. The crumbs will be soft and juicy inside, crunchy on top.
Wait until it´s barely warm, it will taste much better.

14 comentarios:

la ninja dijo...

sounds delish (and easy enough for me to try). we have sort of decent toms here at the mo but, yeah, not comparable to those down south.

how's scotland now? still cold? what a change from madrid...

lobstersquad dijo...

ninja: the tomatoes here are all dutch, so ok but nothing to grow wild about.
scotland is cold, compared with madrid, but not so bad. viva el mar del norte!

Anónimo dijo...

I have some beautiful sun-ripened Louisiana tomatoes on my kitchen counter. I'm going to make this this evening. Sounds wonderful!

Ava dijo...

Mola mogallon la receta and I love the illustrations on your site. I am in vacation in Texas but I live in Spain. I would love to try these with the tomatoes I get from the "campos" en Andalucia when I go back.

caroline dijo...

Oh this sounds sort of like (but not) a tomato filled couscous. I recently found your blog googling tomato being rubbed on a piece of bread (I saw it on TV today!). & I'm a fan!! I think I'll go ahead and read your older posts to see why you're in Scotland and not Spain. :D

ChowBellas dijo...

Really cute drawings on your blog!

Anónimo dijo...

looks good..

hotels lisbona

o0zajxjnh0o dijo...

Each has a i A separate. But I like how Profile. More light play command

isabelito dijo...

Creo q la que voy a probar tu receta soy yo, qué bueno contra!
Me alegro q te haya gustado lo del sushi, no sabes como nos salió, y qué fácil! qué listos estos japos, mucho cuento... no vuelvo a pagar!
Pero el truco está en que tu cocina es lo más...

Anónimo dijo...

I'm sure you've come across this already, but Smitten Kitchen posted a tomato gratin recipe that would certainly cheer up tomatoes that 'need help'.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/scalloped-tomatoes-with-croutons/

Similar principles without the stuffing.

Thanks so much for your recipe for espinacas con garbanzos - it's one of the best things I've ever eaten.

lobstersquad dijo...

Troy: ah, jealous, jealous.
Ava: thanks! if the tomatoes are so good you probably won´t need it but who knows?
Enilorac: pa amb tomaquet is the best. And I´m in Scotland because my husband changed his job, very pedestrian reason.
Chow bellas: thanks!
janice: it is, I promise.
Oozzajinxo: if you say so.
Isabelito: están ricos sí, a ver qué tal se dan en el horno de apodaca. mejor que en este, sospecho, que se me queman un poco por arriba
Pigsandbishops_ they look so good, must try too. and I´m glad you like the espinacas, they´re my absolute fave.

la ninja dijo...

¡que viva! (I aaaaalways forget to check back on comments :)

Amy B. dijo...

I'm enjoying your lil drawings here, so cute. You draw them yourself? :) Anyway, thanks for sharing this.. Looks quite simple to make, simple ingredients too. Very much doable! I'd love to share this to my friends in Foodista, I hope you don't mind. Just add the foodista widget for tomatoes at the end of this post, then that should do it! Keep on sharing , and drawing! :) Cheers from Australia, Amy @ Foodista

gingerrose dijo...

When you mentioned that you had tomatoes and bread, it sounded to me like the perfect time for Smitten Kitchen's scalloped tomatoes! I made this for the first time a little while ago, and it's now almost my favorite thing to do with tomatoes. Here's the link:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/scalloped-tomatoes-with-croutons/

PS-Hi! I'm not actually a new reader to the blog, just a first-time commenter. :-)

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