Tomates Farcies
Well, i don’t feel inspired to write today. Could a post consist simply of : Hey, here are some stuffed tomatoes for ya! … No?
I could go on and on about how tomates farcies is a classic home-cooked dish in France and how I find the preparation very satisfying and reminiscent of the slow cooking undertaken on a rainy day. I could tell you how often these would show up at the dinner table when i was a kid and how many times i was caught sticking a Lego inside the stuffing. It seemed very safe for my astronaut to be hiding on a meteorite, inside a tomato. My mom didn’t think so. So i started playing pirate Lego on my iles flottantes instead. She didn’t like that either. Arrrr..
I could also tell you about the hurry i’m in to post this recipe before tomatoes disappear completely (well they never really disappear, do they?) I could write about season change, global warming, penguins and why i am running behind schedule. I could tell you about the dessert involving cherries that i forgot to post and that will have to wait until next summer. I could write about the gargantuan appetite of my computer hardrive and why the more i feed it with photos and recipes, the more i’m convinced someday it’s gonna swallow me whole.
But no. I don’t feel like writing today.
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Tomates Farcies
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- Serves 6
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For the tomatoes:
- 6 medium tomatoes
- salt
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 lb italian sausage, without casing
- 1/2 lb ground lamb
- 3 tablespoons bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 sprig rosemary, leaves chopped
- 1/2 sprig thyme, leaves chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- hot pepper flakes, to taste
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- Preheat oven to 375′F
- Slice the top off the tomatoes, scoop the inside out (discard the seeds but chop and reserve the pulp). Sprinkle the inside of each tomatoes with salt and place upside down on a small rack to drain.
- Sautee the chopped onions in olive oil until translucent. In a medium bowl combine the onions, the chopped tomato pulp, the sausage, the lamb, the breadcrumbs, the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the garlic, rosemary, thyme, hot pepper flakes, the olive oil and some salt. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and put the tomato top on.
- Place the tomatoes on a tray and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
LOL! Infact this was one of your better written posts in my opinion! Anyway you always make me laugh, that’s for sure!
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I could tell you that these tomatoes are making me wish I had some right now, or that they are what I think I’ll make for tomorrow night’s dinner, or that they remind of me something my friend Clo used to make, but no, I don’t feel like submitting any comment today.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Nice one. I’m a big fan of tomates provençales, but haven’t stuffed them with meat before. I want to do it with a merguez filling. Need lamb…
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:33 am
What a lovely end of summer dish!! I love stuffed vegetables & I love your filled tomatoes!!
Delightful!!
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Oh, this is lovely indeed! I’ve never had stuffed tomatoes before, but I love all the other participants of the “stuffed” genre - zucchini, eggplant, peppers (mmm… peppers).
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I LOVE reading your posts… you always make me laugh! And I can imagine that tomates farcies would be an excellent place to hide an astronaut.
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
OMG that sounds really good!
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I’m glad you did not feel like writing today, especially since you wrote such engaging thoughts in this post
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
What a cute dish! The tomatoes look so pretty that I think I’d put off eating them for as long as possible, even though they look delicious!
September 24th, 2009 at 4:57 am
I just have to say my friend, even if you have no inspiration (but I don’t believe it), we love what you’re making and showing us, why don’t they invent computers that you van grab the tomatoes from your screen and put them in your mouth right away……
September 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Oh that looks yummy! I might have to make that for this weekend!
September 25th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Stephane, i’m loving this. at hasty first glance, your tomatoes appeared, to me at least, to be red-faced, portly gentlemen wearing jaunty hats. (it is friday morning and i was drinking last night.) still, i’m a huge fan of stuffing things with sausage, and I’m definitely feeling the addition of the ground lamb flavorwise. We had golf ball sized versions of these as an amuse-bouche in Banyuls-sur-Mer a few years back, and the only disappointment was that they only gave us one each. i feel like this is perfect hangover food.
September 25th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
This is my first visit to your site….you may have felt uninspired, but I enjoyed reading this post—and will definitely be back.
A nice dish as we transistion into Fall.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I love tomatoes farcie! this reminds me of what I should be doing to those humungous tomatoes sitting on my counter (picked from my garden!) I like the stuffing mixture you have there…full of mmmeat!
September 28th, 2009 at 3:50 am
I love the idea of a side as gorgeous as this. Very inspiring…even if you feel otherwise! That’s a beautiful picture too…
September 29th, 2009 at 9:54 am
so gorgeous! just lovely!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Those are the best stuffed tomatoes I’ve ever seen. Most of the time I see a stuffed tomato it’s either with tuna or breadcrumbs and anchovies. I’d rather eat one stuffed with yummy sausage and lamb.
I’m very glad you leave the Legos out of them now.
Oh wait. You do leave the Legos out now, don’t you?
September 30th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Gorgeous stuffed tomatoes! I love the use of lamb here- it’s making my mouth water!
October 1st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
a much better option than the standard fare of a tomato stuffed with breadcrumbs, parmasean and dried herbs.