When I was planning this week's dinner menus I consulted my cookbooks for a little vegetable inspiration. I should also mention that on top of the boredom of my usual veggies, it is also really tough to find a tasty and light recipe for a vegetable side -- i.e. something that is not fried or baked in some sort of gratin. I found this summer side dish recipe in A Taste of Glynn: Signature Servings from Chefs, Caterers, and Cooks of Georgia's Golden Isles and knew it was the perfect thing to pair with some grilled rosemary balsamic tuna steaks. These tomatoes are easy to put together, bake quickly, and actually pack tons of spinach into the stuffing so there's lots of good stuff going on here. And look how pretty they are? These would be great to put together when you're entertaining too.
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Ingredients:
- 4 tomatoes, tops trimmed and seeded
- 2 1/2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs *I used plain breadcrumbs and added dry basil, oregano, and parsley to the mix
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated and divided
- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 cups baby spinach leaves, stems removed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place seeded tomatoes on a sheet pan. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a food processor, combine bread crumbs, 1/2 cup cheese, red pepper flakes, garlic, spinach leaves, and about 1 Tbs. of olive oil. Process until all leaves are combined into stuffing. Stuff mixture into tomatoes. Bake 10 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and return to oven until cheese is melted. After the cheese melted, I broiled the tomatoes for another 3 minutes until the cheese was slightly browned and bubbly.
I LOVE both stuffed tomatoes and stuffed peppers! Im going to have to try this!
ReplyDeleteChelsea, these were so good and easy to make! I want to try making them again and changing up the stuffing with feta or pine nuts too.
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