This recipe demands firm tomatoes and more than a little dexterity. It's not the kind of recipe you can knock together when you come home from work. The cooking time isn't long - about twenty-five minutes - but preparing the tomatoes takes a while. If like me, you've got time, nimble fingers and a liking for tomatoes, you should give this a go. It's worthwhile. This could be a nice dish for a Sunday lunch. Considering the steps of the recipe in chronological order, making up the stuffing mix comes first. Here, however, I'll explain here how to prepare the tomatoes first and that will leave the rest of the way clear to get on with the recipe. As I say, firm tomatoes are best because they'll take a lot of knocking about between the beginning and the end of the recipe.
First you need to peel the tomatoes. To do this, simply cover them with boiling water for two minutes. The skins will peel off easily after that if you make a little nick with a sharp knife to get started. Do this near the stalk-end so that if you too deeply into the tomato by accident it won't matter. When you've peeled all the tomatoes, cut out the hard, green stalk bits. Make a hole large enough to get a teaspoon into, as that's what you use to take out the rest of the pulp. This is the tricky part. Use the teaspoon to separate the core from the outside wall of each tomato and scoop it out. Freeing it at the bottom is the most difficult. You don't need to get everything out as long as you get rid of the main core. Empty any liquid out of the tomato and set it aside while you do the next one.
I've said 10 tomatoes in the ingredients but what you need is enough to sit side by side in the bottom of a pot so that they support each other and the holes remain facing upwards. The best way to check the quantity is to put the tomatoes in the pot at the beginning and count them. Cover them with boiling water while they're in the pot. The quantities given below will make enough stuffing to fill more than ten tomatoes if you've got a big enough pan. Here's the recipe.
Ingredients
10 medium tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 onion
2 dessertspoons of chopped or pounded nuts
3 mugs of bread crumbs
50g of Cheddar, Edam or other strong hard cheese, grated
2 or 3 dessertspoons of olive oil
A couple of sprigs of fresh basil
A pinch of dried marjoram
2 cloves of garlic
A few crushed black peppercorns
Salt
Chop the pepper and onion and fry them in a little olive oil. They don't need to brown. After 5 minutes or so, add the nuts stir and switch off the heat. Mix the breadcrumbs with the cheese and chopped basil, then mix in the contents of the frying pan with a little salt. The stuffing mix will be very dry but that's good. The tomatoes give off a lot of water. Take a peeled and cored tomato and use a teaspoon and your fingers to stuff it. Holding the tomato in four fingers of one hand, use the thumb of the same hand to pack the stuffing in firmly. Add more stuffing and repeat. If you rotate the tomato and press the stuffing down you'll get a lot in. Be careful you don't burst the tomatoes while doing this. When you've stuffed them all, pack them into the pot with the holes facing upwards, put the crushed garlic cloves, pepper, oregano and a little more salt round them, then add some water till it comes no more than half way up the tomatoes. Put a lid on, heat the pot and let the water boil for a few minutes then turn the heat down to the lowest temperature. Simmer very gently for twenty to twenty-five minutes.