Stuffed Roma Tomatoes

By á-2397

I love stuffed Roma Tomatoes and here is one of my recipes that I really like and I hope you do as well. I served these as a side dish with my roast leg of lamb; spiral ham, herb roasted fingerling potatoes, and a spinach salad with a warm balsamic, garlic vinaigrette salad dressing and Easter Bread as shown in Grandmother Demanes' Easter Bread Recipe.

Ingredients

• Easy Fingerling Potatoes Recipe:
• 6 Roma Tomatoes (medium-large size makes a nice serving.), cut in half length-wise and cored as shown in my illustration. Reserve the pulp and juice.
• 3 tbls finely chopped basil
• 6 3 1 2 herbs: 6 small chives, 3 garlic cloves, 1 nice sprig of rosemary), this should yield about 2 tbls total of these herbs, as shown in my illustration.
• ½ cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1 8oz pkg fresh Baby Bella mushrooms, chopped
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped, as shown in my illustration
• 1 1/8 of pancetta, 1/8 of an inch thick is what I used, as shown in my illustration
• 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbls unsalted butter
• 3 to Italian bread crumbs to sprinkle on top of the filled tomatoes
• to Virgin Oil to drizzle on top of the filled tomatoes.
• **************************************************************************

Details

Servings 6
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 50mins
Adapted from grouprecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the tomatoes in half length-wise as shown in my illustration. With a spoon, hollow out each tomato half and remember to reserve the pulp and juice for later use.
On medium heat, sauté the pancetta until browned, approximately 3 minutes.
Add the chopped shallots and sauté for 2-3 minutes until tender.
Next add the mushrooms and sauté for another minute, stirring frequently, and then add the butter and sauté for another1 minute to make sure the butter and the other ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
Mix in the chopped herb mixture with the exception of the basil and cook for another minute until the herbs are thoroughly incorporated.
Add the bread crumbs and about 6 tablespoons of some of the tomato juice from the cored tomatoes. I reserved the remaining tomato pulp by putting in a freezer bag and placed it in my freezer to add to another recipe. I do this step to add a little moisture and flavor. The stuffing should not be too moist.
Remove the mushroom mixture from the heat and let cool for about 15 minutes before filling the tomatoes.
After the filling has cooled, you are now ready to fill the tomatoes. I filled my tomatoes with about 1 ½ tbls of the mushroom mixture. After they were all filled, I sprinkled a couple of pinches of the Italian bread crumbs on top of each tomato then drizzled each of them with a little of the olive oil. Bake until the tomatoes just become tender, about 20 minutes. These stuffed tomatoes are hearty enough to have as a main course with another side dish and salad. Roasting tomatoes gives them an intense flavor and with the filling they are extra delicious. Enjoy! ;o)