Roman baked rice-stuffed tomatoes

Category

Sides

Cuisine

Italian

Are you looking for real Roman rice-stuffed tomatoes, the kind you find in every deli and on every summer table?

Then this recipe is exactly what you need. Rice-stuffed tomatoes are a simple, clever dish: tomatoes hollowed out and filled with rice, baked slowly with potato wedges all around them. The beauty of it is that you do not boil anything first, because the rice goes in raw and cooks gently inside the tomato.

That is the whole secret of the Roman version: the raw rice absorbs the juice and pulp of the tomato as it bakes, swelling slowly and taking on a full flavor that rice boiled separately could never have. This is why the initial soak in the blended, seasoned pulp matters so much.

It has at least three clear advantages: it is completely vegan, it is made with inexpensive ingredients you already have at home, and it is eaten at room temperature, perfect for hot days. The potatoes around the tomatoes, meanwhile, soak up the juices and become the tastiest part of the dish.

A useful tip: do not fill the tomatoes to the brim, because the rice grows as it cooks and may spill over. And choose round, firm tomatoes that hold up well in the oven without falling apart.

Serve them warm or cold, never piping hot: resting makes them better. They keep in the fridge for a couple of days and are even better the next day.

Ready? Let’s make the rice-stuffed tomatoes.