Class 6 Recipe - Pomodori al Riso
Pomodori al Riso (Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice) Traditional Roman recipe
Ingredients:
- Large tomatoes
- Medium-grain white rice
- Garlic, to taste
- Salt, to taste (enough to season both the pulp mixture and rice, slightly on the saltier side)
- EVO (use a generous amount to prevent the dish from getting too dry)
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh basil
- Water
- Potatoes, cut into 1.5 cm sticks
Procedure:
- Preheat the oven at 200ºC
- Cut off the top of each tomato and hollow out the insides with a spoon, reserving the pulp.
- Blend the reserved tomato pulp with garlic, basil, parsley, a generous amount of olive oil, and a little water until smooth; season generously with salt, as it will flavour both the liquid and the rice, leaning slightly saltier.
- Add the rice to the blended tomato mixture, using a 2:1 liquid-to-rice ratio.
- Mix the rice into the liquid, stirring well to combine.
- Scoop the rice mixture back into the hollowed-out tomatoes trying to respect the 2:1 ratio.
- Arrange the stuffed tomatoes on a baking tray.
- Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm sticks (small enough to match the rest of the dish cooking time) and season with salt, pepper and EVO
- Arrange the potatoes around the baking tray without crowding the tray too much in order to leave enough room for the rest of the mixture
- Pour the rest of the rice mixture around the stuffed tomatoes
- Cover with baking paper and tightly aluminium foil (we use baking paper to separate the ingredients from the al foil as the aluminium can “stain” the potatoes
- Bake for 1/2 hour
- Remove the baking paper and al foil and keep baking for another 1/2 hour at 180C or until potatoes are cooked and the rice mixture turns golden
- Let the stuffed tomatoes set for 30 minutes or longer
- Serve and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Extra tips:
- For extra liquid mixture one more fresh tomato can be added to the tomato pulp
- The same recipe can be cooked on a large frying pan on low heat with a lid on. The result will be moister but with less golden visual effect.
- Smaller tomatoes can be used