Sausage and Herb Stuffed Tomatoes

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

40 mins

Here’s one of my favorite summer recipes when fresh tomatoes are in season. So delicious. It’s a complete meal in 1 tomato with simple clean-up.

Author: Sarah Koszyk Adapted from Food & Wine magazine, September 2001

Recipe type: Dinner, Entree

Cuisine: American, European

Serves: 4

Ingredients

4 medium tomatoes
Salt
½ cup milk
One 2-inch piece of crustless baguette, torn into ½-inch pieces
Olive oil spray
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (just squeeze it out) (You can also subsitute 96% free ground beef OR ground turkey meat OR 1 cup cooked quinoa for vegetarian)
1 cup shredded romaine lettuce
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ teaspoon freshly ground

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°.
Cut the top off each tomato and reserve. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and flesh from the tomatoes (I reserve the inside tomato for a pasta sauce or soup later on).
Sprinkle salt into the tomato shells and flip them over so they can drain for 30 minutes.
In a small saucepan, warm the milk.
Remove from the heat and add the bread and let sit and soak.
In a medium skillet, heat olive oil cooking spray.
Add the onion and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Add the sausage and cook about 8 minutes until it’s not pink. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage while cooking/stirring.
Add the lettuce and cook 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
Add the bread, parsley, basil and eggs to the sausage mixture and stir to combine.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put the tomato shells in a glass Pyrex and fill with the stuffing.
Set the tomato lids on the side. Spray the tomatoes with olive oil spray and bake for about 20 minutes.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 tomato Calories: 307 Fat: 18.7 Saturated fat: 6.5 Carbohydrates: 17.7 Sugar: 7.6 Sodium: 794 Fiber: 2.7 Protein: 17.6 Cholesterol: 140

Sarah Koszyk, MA, RDN, NBC-HWC

Sarah Koszyk, MA, RDN, NBC-HWC