He's riffing again: stuffed tomatoes

Those of us who cook may not be "cursed" as my grandmother would say, occasionally, but we find ourselves split amongst different "masters" all the time. First, there is the "master" of what we like to cook. That is not always the same master as the one in charge of what our friends and loved ones like to eat. There is the "master" of seasonality. While I don't have cravings for asparagus in August I DO find myself wanting lemon. The "master" of what is healthy says "don't use cream sauce on that spinach," while the "master" of crowd pleasing says "but they like it so much more than plain boiled." Every trip into the kitchen is, ultimately, a trip that involves making multiple decisions. And it is with this in mind, that I present the story of my newly devised stuffed tomato recipe.

Keith was coming for dinner, and I wanted to make things that I knew involved his favorite foods. So chanterelle mushrooms were on the menu. So was leg of lamb. A salad of soft, sucrine lettuce (sort of like a butter lettuce), with baby heirloom cucumbers, in creme fraiche dressing. T omatoes had to be on the menu, but how? I thought immediately of stuffed tomatoes, because I could cook them while the lamb was roasting. But when I looked at the rest of the meal, the question of HOW to stuff the tomatoes came up. I had decided against cream in the mushrooms, because the lamb was rich, and the salad dressing was, too. I believed mistakenly, that Keith was not a big fan of cheese, so a cheese filling was out (even if he were a fan, with the rest of the menu, the masters of healthiness would not have allowed it). My standard filling for a stuffed tomato is rice and herbs, perhaps mixed with an egg and some grated cheese. But we had all eaten rice a few days ago, so I was thinking, thinking, thinking, and then the fact that I didn' t have a green vegetable on the plate came into my mind.

Now, call me old fashioned. I 'fess up to it. The idea of protein/starch/green vegetable on the plate is so appealing to me, that I rarely break from it. I don't think of mushrooms or tomatoes as "green vegetables," but to put one on the plate with everything else made the plate too crowded.

Unless.... I used greens to stuff the tomato. And that is exactly what I did, and it was wonderful.
I used mustard greens, because that's what I had in the house, but you could use any leafy green for this. Let me comment for a minute on leafy greens, and serving sizes. According to everything I've read, one big bunch of leafy greens is four servings. Don't listen to that guideline. Guy and I could each, easily, eat a big bunch of leafy greens ourselves. And they are SO good for you. Maybe you don't want to jump into eating a whole bunch at once but eat bigger servings of these. If you cook them properly, they're delicious, they're pretty, and like I say they make you so healthy.

So I stripped the mustard green leaves off of two bunches of the stuff, and then I cooked them in rapidly boiling salted water . Here's a hint with leafy greens. They take up a LOT of space in the pot. If your pot doesn't hold them all, put in some let them cook down, and add some more. Don't fret about lack of space. You'll have it very quickly. Just cook them until they wilt and then drain them. Let them cool completely, because you're going to handle these greens. In fact, if you could cook them the night before, even better.

When they're cool enough to handle, squeeze them HARD, to get all the water out. Then chop them fine. Put them into a bowl, and add a bit of olive oil (maybe quarter of a cup) a cup of dried bread crumbs, about two big stems worth of chopped basil leaves, and stir everything up. Then add salt to taste. Put this to the side, while you work the tomatoes. I use beefsteaks here. As I've said , cooking heirlooms seems to be a waste of them, to me. Cut a horizontal cut across the top of six of them, and then with a spoon, carefully pull out all of the innards. Try not to break the tomato shell. Then, push the seeds and liquid through a colander take the remaining solids, chop them, and add them to the greens mixture. This is going to be your stuffing for the tomatoes. Mix them all together. The tomato will add some moisture, and that's okay.

Evenly distribute the stuffing amongst the tomato shells, and then put them into a baking dish that you've oiled with some olive oil. If you have too much stuffing, just put it around the tomatoes. Bake these guys for about thirty minutes, at 350. Then, while they're baking, grate about a cup of gruyere, or some other soft, fairly strong flavored cheese. Take out the tomatoes, sprinkle each of them with cheese, and bake for another fifteen minutes.

The juice in the tomatoes will begin to bubble, and the cheese will have melted nicely. The breadcrumbs add some "coherence" to the greens, and allow you to cut into them and get nice solid pieces.

You can eat these hot, at room temperature, or you can store them and eat them cold, like as a substantial lunch. And you'll get greens into people, and have a nice tasting dish besides.

If you're making them to go with something like lamb, or another roast, you can put them on the second shelf and let them cook away with the meat . You will have to time things properly, but that's not a big deal. Count back 45 minutes from when the meat should be done, and put in the tomatoes. And if the meat isn't done when it should be, that's ok, too, because the temperature is not important to these.

Try it. Get the tomatoes while they're here, and enjoy this rather special, flavorful dish