Tags: Little Foodies Weekday Meals
Once upon a time, many many moons ago, Adrian took a backpacking trip through Italy. He did the thing properly too—took just the one backpack, stayed in hostels, caught a foot fungus…the whole shebang! This was, of course, before I was around to tell him it wasn’t his best idea. But he was young, as one should be for those trips, and had a great time.
While I don’t envy his means of travel, I’ll forever envy his food experiences from that trip. He ate some of the best food in his life as he constantly reminds me whenever we’re out dining on Italian food. Sorry, Scott Conant, not even your Bolognese—which I thought was heaven on a plate—makes the cut for best Italian meal in his book. No Bolognese could ever compare to the Bolognese he ate while in Bologna. No pasta, PERIOD, will ever compare to the fresh pasta he ate in Italy. Yeah, I’m jealous.
Wanting to bring some of that Italy cooking into our home (and maybe prove to myself that I could cook just as well as those Italian grandmothers he’d fallen in love with all those years ago…and still holds a torch for, I’m sure) I asked him which meal in Italy was his favorite and which he’d like me to try and recreate. Oddly enough, he said it was a very simple (I think the word “peasant” was used) meal he had in Rome—stuffed tomatoes. It had been a long day of sightseeing, he was tired and hungry and just stumbled into the first little café he saw. He described it as a cafeteria-like setting where you walk along the counter and choose the prepared food you’d like and pay at the end of the counter. Not exactly the glamorous dining experience I’d imagined, but if he said it was the best, who was I to argue? We went to the library and I took my time doing research to find an authentic recipe for stuffed tomatoes. I knew there were a million versions online, but I wanted one that would be a perfect match to his Roman experience.
After a month or so of painstaking research and tests, I narrowed down the recipe to an “almost” exact copy of that oh-so-memorable meal. He helped me prepare it and when it was finished, I watched him take the first bite and was thrilled to see his million-dollar smile spread across his face. I’d done it!
*Full Disclosure: We were newlyweds when this happened and he was still riding that “everything you do is absolutely perfect in my eyes, honey” train. So, in an effort to make sure I was still a step above the Italian grandmother competition, I made it again a few weeks ago…just to be extra sure. One can never be too sure when your husband’s heart is easily swayed by some Italian grandmother behind a stove. I’m happy to report I got the “million-dollar smile” stamp of approval seven years later.
**Side Note: Now that I’m writing this out and retelling the story, I wonder if he was being kind and chose something super simple to spare me having to recreate some crazy 8-hour simmered sauce from the gods as a newlywed…huh…interesting. Well either way, this recipe is crazy good, so I won’t question his intentions.
ADRIAN’S ROMAN STUFFED TOMATOES
(“Pomodoro al Riso”)
· 6 large tomatoes
· ½ cup fresh basil
· ½ cup fresh Italian parsley
· ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
· 1 red onion,
· 1 cup rice
· Salt
· 2-3 potatoes, unpeeled and diced
Preheat oven to 350°
Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop the contents out and into a bowl, set aside. Rub the inside of the tomatoes with salt and set them, upside down on a cooling rack lined baking sheet. This step is crucial. You want to ensure all the excess moisture is drained to keep the tomatoes from collapsing when baked.
In the food processor, pulse the tomato “innards,” herbs, onion, olive oil and salt (I started with ½ tsp and increased it as needed—to taste) until everything is finally minced.
In a large bowl, combine the tomato mixture with the rice and set aside to rest for about 45 minutes. This is another crucial step because you really want those flavors and liquids to start to break down and penetrate the rice before it goes into the oven.
Place your empty tomato “bowls” into a baking dish and season, again, the insides with salt. Spoon the rice mixture into the tomatoes leaving a little room (the rice mixture will expand slightly while cooking). Put the lids back on your tomatoes, spread the potatoes around the tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil (I also sprinkled some more parsley on top of the potatoes) and bake for 1 hour (or until rice just cooked).
