This is a very simple dish to make. I always make my own ricotta but you can very satisfactorily use store bought which makes this dish also fast to put together. If you have the time though, I highly recommend trying homemade ricotta as it has a sweeter fresher flavor than store bought.
I use this ricotta blend for stuffing other things as well, including lasagna. The secret ingredient is nutmeg. My mother, who lived in Rome for two years when she was a kid, taught me to put nutmeg in ricotta and though it seems strange- it is delicious! If you hate nutmeg, leave it out.
Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes
serves 9
Ingredients:
9 medium summer tomatoes (firm)
15 ounces ricotta
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg
12 big basil leaves, julienned
3/4 tsp salt
3 shakes nutmeg
15 grinds fresh pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the top of the tomatoes off and hollow them out being careful not to rip them up (you can see in the picture that I ripped a couple of mine).
In a big bowl mix all the remaining ingredients using a fork so that the egg gets broken and mixed in well.
Place the tomatoes in a pie dish and fill each one up with the ricotta mixture making sure to heap it up at the top a little.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Then turn your oven broiler on and broil them until the tops turn golden (in my oven this is less than five minutes).
These make a great side dish or you can eat them as your main dish with a salad for a light dinner. You can eat the leftovers for lunch.
Do you know of a good recipe for stewed tomatoes? Actually Italian stewed tomatos? Or a good book for tomato recipes. We canned 14 pints of tomatoes today and now have 52 pints of green beans from our garden this year. Feels great!
Robin
Perfect timing! I get my CSA today and there are supposed to be tomatoes in there. I’ve tried just about every tomato recipe out there. Time for a new one. Thank you!
Now I am going to have to master goats milk ricotta before March when the tomatoes come in.. Hope you are surviving this, your less than favorite, season well.
Kind Regards
Belinda
Robin- you could make an amazing tomato soup with stewed tomatoes. I’ll be posting one or two of those soon. I think in the thick of winter there are few things better than a really good tomato soup! You can also add them to stews and casseroles. You can make them into a marinara sauce too. That’s awesome that your garden has been so productive!! So jealous of the green beans. Next year I’ll plant a ton of them!!
Green Bean- I hope you enjoy this one. I like that it’s really simple to put together but for all that is kind of fancy.
Belinda- thank you, you know it’s been a fairly mild summer for us which isn’t good for tomato growing but I’ve only had one heat rash all season and now the rain has come back which I LOVE! Uh oh, have you got goats and I didn’t even know about it? That means I haven’t visited your blog in too long. I’ll stop in soon and see what’s going on in your corner of the world!!
Nope, I wish; no goats here. Ducks, Chickens, dogs and yabbies but not enough room for goats.
😀
Dh just tolerates goat milk cheeses better than cow milk and as I can only get standard ricotta I am going to have to make it if I want to try your recipe. It’s a project on my list anyway now you have just made it a priority.
Kind Regards
Belinda