It’s tomato season! Is your garden overflowing with tomatoes? When you’ve had all the tomato salad you can handle, and are looking for an alternative, stuffing and roasting them is the perfect solution! Depending on the region, it seems every area of Italy has its own version of stuffed tomatoes. While Sicily stuffs tomatoes with lots of breadcrumbs, cheese, raisins, and pine nuts, along with anchovies, other areas use sausage meat, while others still use rice, which is an ever-popular choice for the Romans. In this version, we’re using the inside of the tomatoes themselves, along with a few other add-ons, because we don’t want to waste any part of this delicious fruit! (Yes, it’s a fruit!) Doing so speeds up the process substantially, while still resulting in a tasty, crunchy, and very satisfying meal. But to make this dish even more satisfying, boil 1 cup of instant rice for 5 minutes, and add it to the mixture and reduce the amount of breadcrumbs by half. Mix well to combine and cook as instructed in step 3. 


Oven Roasted Stuffed Tomatoes 
Ingredients 
Sea salt to taste 
6 large vine ripe tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping
1 cup bakery-style breadcrumbs, plus extra for topping 
Freshly ground black pepper to taste 

Instructions 

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. 
2. Cut the cap off the tomatoes. Gently cup the tomato in your hand and with a teaspoon, scoop out the inside of the tomato, being careful not to break the tomatoes in the process. Season with salt and place the tomatoes to drain upside down on some paper towels. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the ingredients.  
3. Mince the inside of the tomatoes and add them to a medium bowl. Add the oil, garlic, parsley, cheese, and breadcrumbs to the chopped tomato and mix well to combine; season with salt and pepper.
4. Generously divide the mixture and add it to the hollow tomatoes. Top with a teaspoon each of added breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Bake the tomatoes for 15 to 16 minutes, or until topping is crunchy. Turn oven on broil for an additional 2 to 3 minutes to toast the tops. Serve hot or at room temperature.