Stuffed Tomatoes

Serves: to serve 4

Prep Time: 20 Minutes + waiting

Cook Time: 40 Minutes

Ready In: 1 hr
+ waiting

Ingredients

4 large - firm tomatoes

8 oz - sausage meat (pork mince)

4 slices - white bread

½ cup - milk

  - salt and pepper

2 cloves - garlic

2 tablespoons - freshly chopped parsley

2 tablespoons - olive oil

Directions

  1. Using a sharp knife, cut away the base of the tomatoes (or the top - makes no difference except to appearance). Place the off-cuts to one side (these will be circular 'caps' about 1" - 1½" (2.5cm - 3.5cm) in diameter). Using a teaspoon and a short, sharp knife (if necessary) carefully scoop out the insides of the tomatoes, leaving the outer flesh intact. Don't discard the insides of the tomatoes since you can make a great fresh tomato sauce from them.
  2. Salt the insides of the tomatoes well and turn them upside-down on absorbent kitchen paper for half-an-hour (or longer) to get rid of some of the water from the flesh. Meanwhile, cut the crusts off the bread and crumble the white insides between your fingers to create breadcrumbs (make sure you end up with about 2 cupfuls of breadcrumbs). Place these into a mixing bowl and pour the milk over so that it soaks into the bread.
  3. Peel and crush (mince) the garlic and mix with the sausage meat and parsley. Add a good few twists of fresh pepper then squeeze out any excess milk from the breadcrumbs and add those too. Mix well together then heat gently in a frying pan for about 8-10 minutes turning the mixture all the time so that it removes the moisture, breaks up and becomes pale beige in colour. (If you aren't using a non-stick pan, you need to add a little oil first)
  4. Allow this mixture to cool a little then, using a teaspoon, stuff the tomatoes up to the top, using just sufficient pressure to make the mixture firm inside the tomatoes without splitting them. Place the tomatoes into a well-buttered oven-proof dish and replace the 'lids' that were cut off at the beginning.
  5. Pour or brush a little olive oil over the tomato 'lids' (it helps stop them burning), add about ¼" (0.5cm) of water to the dish then place it in the middle of a preheated oven Mk 6 - 400ºF - 200ºC for about 40 minutes. Serve the tomatoes, either with a few French fries or with Basmati rice. I can assure you that the result is well worth the time taken to prepare this dish.