Stuffed tomatoes are a very popular dish in Greece and these recipes will become your favorites. Follow the recipe and I guarantee you the results will be outstanding. Children love this dish so you’ll be able to give even the most finicky little ones a tasty, light and very wholesome meal to eat. Stuffed tomatoes and feta cheese are a match made in heaven.
Ingredients:
4 tomatoes (medium sized) 200 gr. Minced meat 4 heaped tablespoonfuls rice 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 – 2 cloves of garlic minced 1 small eggplant grated 1 zucchini grated 1 cup olive oil ½ cup white wine Allspice at the tip of the spoon 1/2 cup chopped parsley Salt, pepper 2 – 3 potatoes Salt, pepper
Directions:
Use large, firm tomatoes. They must be ripe and similar in size, so they will cook at the same time. Wash and dry them. With a sharp knife cut a small slice off the top. If you like, leave a bit of the flesh attached to the tomato, so that it acts as a hinge. Scoop out the flesh with a teaspoon, carefully so as not to break the skin. Put the scooped out flesh in a bowl. When you have scooped out the flesh from all the tomatoes, put it in the blender, or better still mash it with a fork or cut the pulp by hand. You should have about 3 cups of pulp. If it is not enough, you can chop up one or more tomatoes to have enough for the filling and for the sauce. You may also use canned tomatoes for convenience.
Put half of the olive oil in a pan and sauté the minced meat with the onion, grated eggplant and zucchini, stirring and breaking up the lumps of meat. When they have browned lightly add the rice and let it sauté for 4 minutes. Add the wine and allow it to simmer until it evaporates. Then add about ¾ of the pulp of the tomatoes, a glass of water, the garlic, the parsley, salt and pepper and let the mixture simmer gently for about half an hour. Make sure that the mixture is not too dry at the end of the cooking time. There must be about 2 cups of liquid, so that the stuffed tomatoes will cook nicely. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasonings. Remove the pan from the heat.
Fill each tomato with the mixture, place the tops over the filling and arrange them in a baking pan. Peel the potatoes, wash them and cut then in quarters. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them and place them among the tomatoes and peppers. Sprinkle a bit of salt over the tomatoes, drizzle the rest of the oil over the vegetables and spoon the rest of the tomato pulp over everything. You shouldn’t need to add any more water, as the liquid from the rice mixture is adequate. Tomatoes and potatoes release quite a lot of liquid while cooking, so there should be a little sauce left in the pan.
Place the pan in a preheated oven at 180oC (350o F) for about an hour and a half until the potatoes are soft.