Summer Stuffed Tomatoes

If you’ve read my blurb in About Me, you would know that I always have tomatoes and my favourite tomatoes are from Gull Valley Greenhouse – they taste like tomatoes should and there’s no going back to blah grocery store ones once you’ve tried these (available at various farmers’ markets in Calgary and Edmonton). But I’m always excited around this time of year because tomatoes are actually in-season.

Farmers' Market Cookbook

I recently picked up an issue of Vegetarian Times “Farmers’ Market Cookbook” because they had a beautiful picture of stuffed tomatoes on the cover and had to try out the recipe with my beloved Gull Valley tomatoes. It’s no surprise this is the highest rated recipe on the magazine’s website, it was so good I made them twice in the same week. Please note the recipe below is my own adaptation but you can also access the original recipe here.

The changes I made to the recipe were mostly for taste and ingredient availability. I couldn’t find any fresh local corn this week from the farmers’ market so I left the corn out. The first time around I found the recipe was a bit bland so I upped the basil and parmigiano-reggiano, added some lemon zest and also added a bit of salt and pepper.  I was a little worried the salt would create more water from the ricotta and zucchini but as long as I was conscious to scoop up the filling and leave the watery liquid the recipe turned out great.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS: 
4 large tomatoes
1 egg
1/3 cup low-fat ricotta
1 medium zucchini
1/4 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons finely grated parmigiano reggiano
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cut the tops off the tomatoes, hollow out the tomatoes. I found the easiest way was to start with a sharp knife (ex. grapefruit knife), following the tomato’s natural circumference (where the firmer tomato meat meets the pulp and seeds). Then using a thin spoon gently scoop out the pulp and seeds of the tomato, being careful not to damage the exterior.
3. Save the tomato tops, throw out the seeds and liquid, reserving only ½ of the tomato pulp.
4. Finely chop zucchini, onion, tomato pulp, and mince garlic OPTION:  you can also thinly slice zucchini rounds for the top of the tomatoes (3 rounds per tomato)
5. Beat the egg, add the ricotta, chopped vegetables, basil, lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons of the parmigiano. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Fill tomatoes with filling (being careful to leave out the watery liquid), sprinkle with remaining parmigiano reggiano and top with 3 slices of zucchini rounds on each tomato if you did save any zucchini rounds.
7. Place the tops of tomatoes back on
8. Bake for 35 minutes or until filling has set, tops are slightly browned. Cool for 5-10 minutes.

I found my tomatoes were dangerously rocking a bit on the baking sheet the first time, knocking over the zucchini slices and parmigiano. I’d suggest baking them in muffin tins greased lightly with a cooking oil spray.

In the future I may even add a bit of  quinoa to them, or substitute the parmigiano for a bit of feta or goat cheese.

Approximately 130 calories per tomato.