Every day during the summer, at 6:56 am and 8:43 am, Marion Sauveur gives you an idea of ​​a recipe to brighten up your taste buds. On Wednesday, she offers you a vegetarian recipe for stuffed tomatoes.

Marion Sauveur, with you every day, we talk about the products of our region. Today you are cooking the tomato. 

We are in the middle of the season, because there is indeed a season for tomatoes and it is summer. The tomato needs heat and light. And yes, it is a fruit that we eat as a vegetable that comes to us from America. It was the Aztecs in Mexico who cultivated it. The tomato arrived in Europe in the 16th century. In France, it is believed to be toxic and it is not consumed. It is used as an ornamental plant. It was not until the 18th century to find it on our plates. 

Forget the tomatoes that you find on the shelves from November to May. They are floury, tasteless and not French. Today there are more and more varieties of tomatoes that have been created recently to withstand transport. They are hard and with thick skin, without any blemishes. And above all, they have less taste than the old varieties. But not easy to find your way today with imitations.

Once purchased, we do not put the tomatoes in the refrigerator, otherwise they have no flavor. A tomato can be stored at room temperature and you can eat it quickly.

How do you propose to cook it? 

At the end of July, the tomato is perfect to be stuffed. I offer a vegetarian version. We start by choosing nice and large tomatoes with firm flesh, such as Marmande tomatoes. They will hold up well during cooking. We cut off their hats and empty their flesh.

We brown an onion. We add bulgur and a little vegetable broth. When the bulgur is cooked, add the diced peppers and coarsely chopped tomato flesh. We finish with a few roasted pine nuts, olive oil and basil. 

We fill the tomatoes with this stuffing. We don't forget to put the hat back on. If there is any bulgur left, we sprinkle it around the tomatoes in the dish. I love it when the bulgur is a bit crispy, when baked in the oven. And we bake 20 big minutes at 180 degrees. 

The advantage of this recipe is that the bulgur will allow, like the rice that is traditionally put in the dish, to drink the cooking water of the tomatoes. We will thus avoid having a very wet tomato. 

Ingredients

4 large tomatoes 

½ bunch of basil

1 onion or 3 spring onions 

200 g bulgur 

35 cl of vegetable broth

30g pine nuts 

½ yellow pepper

½ red pepper 

 Where can you enjoy stuffed tomatoes if you don't feel like cooking? 

In Paris, at the restaurant La Pagode de Cos. Chef Jérôme Banctel makes stuffed tomatoes with almost candied cocktail tomatoes. They are garnished with red peppers mixed with olive oil, sprinkled with a black olive crumble and a pickled pepper. We are in gluttony and delicacy.   

Tomatoes stuffed with red peppers, olive crumble and pickled white peppers

For 4 people

  • Tomatoes

Grind the cocktail tomatoes n ° 2. Dry them for 1h30 in a dry oven at 150 ° C for 1h30. Clear and reserve.

  • White peppers in pickles

- Cumin

- 1 l of water

- 200 g sugar

- 0,020 cl white wine

- 2 white peppers

- 1 lemon

Make a syrup with the water, sugar, white wine and cumin. Burn and smoke the peppers, cut them into a rectangle then roll them to obtain a roll 2 cm wide by 0.5 mm in diameter. Finely chop the lemons, remove the seeds. Cut lemon shards by removing the skin and part of the zest, give a triangular shape. In a jar, combine the peppers, lemon zest, pour the hot syrup over it, leave to marinate for 2 days.

  • The joke

-10 red peppers

-Olive oil

-Basil

Wash, mince the red peppers and sweat them in olive oil over low heat. Once cooked, mix the whole to obtain a smooth purée with Chinese cheesecloth. Add the chopped basil. Once the stuffing is ready, stuff the tomatoes.

  • The olive crumble

- 500 g black olives

- 60 g flour

- 60 g butter

- 1 egg yolk (10 g)

Dry the black olives in the oven at 180 ° for 1 hour, once dry, mix until a powder is obtained. Mix 60g of olive powder with the flour, softened butter and egg yolk. Spread out the appliance then bake at 180 ° for 15 min.

  • Tomato frosting

- 2 kg tomatoes

- 1 l of chicken broth

- 50 g butter

Mix 2 kg of tomato and let them drain in a tea towel. Once the tomato water has been collected, reduce it by half. Add the same amount of chicken stock and reduce by half again.

  • Dressage

Heat the tomato glaze then cover the tomatoes to obtain a nice shine. Sprinkle with black olive crumble and top the tomatoes with a roll of white pepper in pickles.