Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

Today's my birthday!  I am officially a quarter-century.  Birthdays are such a funny thing, getting to celebrate simply surviving another year.  I can understand having a party if you reach 100 or something, but 25?  It just goes to show that I'm competent enough not to get hit by a train or blow myself up with fireworks or something.  But birthdays are fun nonetheless.  My husband came home last night and baked me a birthday cake!  Complete with hand piped cherry blossoms (they're my favorite).

Between the two of us, that number 2 will get re-used at least 8 times over the next four years.  And I'm sure I'll see that 5 in another ten.

So what am I doing on this joyous occasion?  Well, I got up and went for a nice long run and then went to Starbucks to read Cutting For Stone where I enjoyed an oh-so-perfect Venti Coconut Iced Coffee with...wait for it...WHOLE MILK!  Oh yeah, I'm usually a skim milk kinda' girl but I thought: Hey, it's your birthday!

It was heaven.

I came back and enjoyed a nice bubble bath to de-stress and here I am writing a blog post to you lovely people.

What are we doing today?  Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil.   I found this easy-peasy recipe in last Sunday's New York Times.  I wanted to make it in honor of my best friend and little Italian ragazza.  If she could eat raviolis and a caprese salad every day of the week, she would.  And...almost does.  We used to joke that she smelled like garlic bread.  I love her and wish she was here in MN to enjoy this yummy dish with me.  Miss you, Lara.

On the same night that I made this, I also tried a dish I found on another food blog called Pasta with Whiskey, Wine, and Mushrooms.  It was a complete and total disaster.  A true failure.  But unlike the matzo ball soup, this wasn't my fault!  I followed the recipe exactly and it was disgusting.

Picture it (ala' Sophia on the Golden Girls): Minneapolis, August 2011.  A young woman, slaving over a hot stove for a good hour.  Cutting, slicing, chopping, measuring, stirring, roasting.  When the meal is complete, she sits down with her husband at the dinner table.  And neither of them can even take one bite of the food because it smells like straight whiskey.

Yes, I kid you not.  I threw out so much freaking food, I was miserable.  It literally tasted and smelled like I had taken pasta, chicken, and mushrooms and had doused them in a gallon of Jack Daniels, let them stew in it for an hour, and then drank it all down.  The smell was so strong it was burning the inside of my nose.  It was awful.

I'm thinking that the blogger mistyped some of the ingredient measures.  I won't waste your time or mine typing out the recipe and uploading the images.  It makes me a little sick in my stomach even now thinking about it.

On to better things!

THE MISSION: Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

That's not the image from the newspaper.  Actually, there was no image accompanying the recipe so I just Googled it and this is what I found.  I also don't really like when recipes says 'fresh' in the title.  Compared to...?  Using rotten moldy ingredients?  It's something you would have lost points on in high school English class for trying to up your word count.  But I get where they're going.  

THE INGREDIENTS: 4 large tomatoes, 8 ounces fresh chopped mozzarella, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil + a little more to garnish, 4 tablespoons olive oil, S&P.  

I wasn't able to find 4 large tomatoes.  The picture is misleading as everything else is actually pretty small to begin with, there's nothing to get a relative size.  So I used 6 medium-ish tomatoes and kept the rest of the ingredient measures the same.

Cut 1/4-inch slice from the top of the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.  

I scooped out all 6 tomatoes into a bowl and then separated the meaty pulp from all the excess juice and seeds.  You don't want all that, you just want the fleshy parts from inside the tomatoes.

Chop pulp and mix with the mozzarella, basil, bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with S&P.  

Nothing smells better than fresh basil.  It's so distinct, there's really nothing like it.

Stuff the tomatoes, replacing the reserved slices.  Drizzle with 2 more tablespoons of olive oil.  

I did, in fact, replace those reserved slices, but there was nothing to see in that picture.  Here's what the little guys look like stuffed to glorious capacity.

Roast in a greased roasting pan at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.  Garnish with more chopped basil.  


MISSION COMPLETE:

DEBRIEFING: How can something with so few ingredients taste so good?


One thing I think I'd do a little bit differently next time is toasting up the bread crumbs before stuffing the tomatoes.  I used Japanese Panko breadcrumbs - because they're hardy and super crunchy.  I'd suggest throwing the bread crumbs in a pan with a little butter and toasting them on the stove.  I just felt like they could have been a little bit crunchier.


I also made the mistake of not having a loaf of French bread or a focaccia or something in the house to put the roasted tomato and all of its goodies on.  Next time I'll get a fresh baguette, cut it into 1-inch slices, rub some garlic into it, brush it with olive oil, and throw it under the broiler for a few minutes.  It would be perfect to kind of dunk into the roasted tomato or scoop some of the tomato, mozzarella, basil, and bread crumb mixture onto and eat it that way.


Something I'm particularly enjoying about this blog is that I'm eating new things.  If you know me, I'm really picky.  J's uncle put it a good way: a particular palette.  But I'm trying to be more adventurous.  Like making that beef stew a few weeks ago?  Yeah, I don't like steak and I don't like stew.   Anyway, I hate tomatoes.  I will never eat a tomato unless it's in pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or BBQ sauce.  They're mushy and slimy and wet and gross.  So for me to purchase tomatoes and eat them - as is - as the star of a dish is a big deal.  And you know what?  It was good.  But still don't expect me to eat a turkey sandwich with tomatoes on it.  Ick.  Soggy tomato bread.

My Mom and Dad sent me the best birthday gift ever.  Thanks family!

It's this massive, weighty thing, binder-style filled with something like 1200 recipes, plus all the kitchen know-how you'd ever need.  The dork in me spent hours last night reading through it, using sticky flags to mark recipes that I want to try.  Nerd alert!

 I'd get started today but J and I are going out to dinner for my birthday.  Excited!  We're going to a restaurant I've wanted to go to for ages.  We had reservations in January sometime but we got one of our many Minnesota snowstorms and the restaurant had to close.  So, needless to say, I think I've been pretty patient with this one.

Oh, yeah, and before I forget.

Reason #14 why my workplace is better than yours:

This was my lunch yesterday.  In our cafeteria.  Thai Flank Stead Salad with a Sesame-Ginger Vinaigrette.  It had Chinese cabbage, little carrot ribbons, edamame, sugar peas, red bell pepper, all kinds of goodness.  This is some high-class cafeteria food if I've ever seen it.  And it was made for me piece by piece by a little Frenchman in full chef regalia.  Jean Luc, or something like that.  He even carved the steak right in front of me.  Lol.

Cafeteria food will never be the same.  Did I mention we have on-site sushi chefs?  It's like working for Google or something.  Except we have better health insurance :)

Off to read.  Or see Glee 3-D.  Haven't decided yet.  (Commence the laughter about how I like Glee.)

Cheers to another great year!
Rachel