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.