Sunday, May 27, 2007

Waiter, Someone Stuffed Eggs in My Tomato!

Egg, Goat Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Tomato

I've missed a couple of editions of the huge "Waiter, There's Something In..." event, and to be quite frank, I almost let this one go by, too, out of sheer lack of attentiveness. On Friday, I finally noticed Jeanne of Cook Sister had chosen stuffed vegetables for this month's theme. In the end I had to scramble a bit to find something I wanted to try out, and stumbled upon this recipe at Epicurious.

Egg, Goat Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Tomato

I know, right? It was just a bit fiddly for me, so I decided to fiddle some more. For one thing, my eggs were large; my tomatoes weren't. Out went the romaine pesto (although in retrospect it would probably have worked very well there), in came separation of yolks and whites. One of the whites I mixed with goat cheese, parmesan, and crumbled bacon (I thought pancetta might be too flimsy, and besides I had some bacon I needed to dispose of). Then I just spooned a bit of the white mixture into the carved-out tomatoes, carefully poured a yolk into each, and topped with some more cheese paste. Sprinkle with some extra parmesan and into the oven.

Egg, Goat Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Tomato

The amount of cheese mixture given would probably fill three or four tomatoes of this size - I mixed in the extra white and another whole egg and made a frittata.

Egg, Goat Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Tomatoes
inspired by Gourmet Sept 2006, serves 2

2 eggs
2 large tomatoes
80 g soft goat cheese
30 g + 1 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
4 rashers bacon
1 tbsp chopped basil
salt & pepper

Fry the bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels. When cooled a bit, crumble into largeish pieces.

Separate the eggs, discarding one of the whites (or putting it aside for something else) and gently sliding each yolk into a bowl of cold water. Take the remaining white and whisk it with goat cheese and pepper until well blended. Stir in parmesan, basil and bacon, check taste to see if it needs salt.



Cut the top off each tomato and remove pulp & seeds with a spoon. Spoon some of the cheese mixture into each tomato "bowl," leaving room for the yolk in the middle, then carefully pour the yolks in and top with more of the cheesy stuff, trying not to break the yolks while you do so. Sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan and bake at 200°C (400°F) for about 15 minutes.

Egg, Goat Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Tomato

10 comments:

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Absolutely gorgeous! This is one I have to try. I love stuffed veggies and have to try doing this with the egg yolk!

Pille said...

Great WTISIM entry! I entered stuffed tomatoes, too, but nothing as cute and elaborated. Bookmarking this dish:)

Mia said...

Meeta, I hope you like it as much as I did! I bet it would make a really nice breakfast: you could make fill the tomatoes in the evening and just pop them in the oven when you wake up.

Pille, I'm going to have to try it according to the original recipe, too, or at least with some sort of pesto. And I have to say getting just the right runny consistency on the yolk was probably pure luck.

Anonymous said...

Very nice, I like this filled tomato.
Ciao.

evinrude said...

Ah! Lovely, lovely, lovely! You have no idea how much I'm attracted to runny yolks! Although I've heard of egg-stuffed tomatoes, I've yet to try it. Now it's high time!

Andreea said...

oh these look great. never had toamtoes with eggs. lovely

Helene said...

That tomato is absolutely mouth watering! I would love this for brunch on sundays!

Mia said...

Orchidea, thanks!

Evinrude, I was SO happy when I realized the yolk was so perfect - with the cheese mix surrounding it there was really no way to tell how done they were. I guess it'll depend a lot on the size of the tomato, too, and how cold all the ingredients are going in the oven.

Andreea, neither had I! Except side by side in greasy English breakfasts...

Helen, I definitely think it's going to be a Sunday breakfast/brunch item for us, since you can do all the prep-work the night before (I am not to be trusted with measurements or sharp knives before I've had a good few hours to wake up, sadly).

Thistlemoon said...

Did anyone say yum? Wow, those are magnificent!

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