Find the largest tomatoes you can to give you a fighting chance of being able to scoop out & re-fill the fruit while keeping a half presentable shape.

For the filling, from the base of the tomato flesh & bread crumbs, the world is your oyster. Go for plenty of seasoning or bold flavours as the liquid from the tomato flesh doesn’t add much of its own. Try any combination of olives, anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh or dried herbs, tapenade, parmesan, goat’s cheese, (cooked) onion & garlic….as I say, your call.

Make one as a starter or side dish, or a couple as a main with more fresh bread to mop up the juices.

Makes 1 Tomato

Equipment

1. Blender

Ingredients

Tomato	1	the largest you can find
Stale Bread	2	slices
Filling of your choice (Mushrooms, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan, anchovies…)	1	tablespoon in total once chopped
Olive Oil	1	teaspoon
Balsamic Vinegar	1	drizzle

Method

1. Carefully cut out and discard the stalk of the tomato and any hard, white flesh immediately beneath.
2. Still taking care to keep the skin intact, use a spoon to loosen & scoop out the flesh, seeds and all. Don’t be over-zealous with the hollowing out else the tomato will collapse during cooking. Set the removed flesh to one side.
3. Your bread needs to be super dry. If it’s just past its best but not dry, cut it into cubes and either leave to air dry for half a day or place in a single layer on a baking tray in a low or cooling oven until bone dry. If taking the oven option, allow to cool before making the crumbs. (Note the foresight required for both!)
4. Place the bread cubes into the blender and pulse to make a coarse crumb.
5. Reserve about a dessert spoon of the crumbs for topping the tomato but leave the remainder in the blender.
6. Add the tomato flesh.
7. Add your chosen flavourings – about a dessert spoonful or so, depending on the size of you tomato. You’ll be the best judge of how much will comfortably fit into your fruit. Taste as you go & adjust seasonings and flavour pairings.
8. Carefully fill your tomato to just below to top.
9. Sprinkle with the reserved bread crumbs. You could add some grated parmesan or some herbs here too.
10. Drizzle with olive oil to prevent the bread crumbs from burning & optionally a drizzle of balsamic. Tomatoes & vinegar were made for each other in my opinion.
11. Bake in a hot oven (200c ish) for around 20 Minutes, until starting to slightly collapse with a crispy golden top.
12. Serve as a starter, side dish or main course. Perhaps with a little peppery rocket or some good cured meats. We enjoyed ours with some Crispy Stuffed Polenta Balls, saved in the freezer for just such a no-energy-to-cook day.