I’ve written several if not many posts about my search for the elusive stuffed tomato which tastes like those we bought so many years ago on holiday in the south of France. I made a very dissimilar stuffed tomato yesterday for dinner with friends; they were cherry tomatoes and the stuffing was cream cheese, tiny cubes of chorizo fried until all crispy, tiny cubed red pepper, and finely sliced green ends of spring onions both fried in olive oil.
The National Mark, an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fish which aimed to standardize food and its production from the 1930’s, have a surprisingly contemporary recipe. British cooking gets such a bad name, rescued only by Elizabeth David, an allegation which is totally untrue, yet her the recipe includes olive oil, garlic, and anchovies – a recipe from 1936!
- 10 National tomatoes
- National Mark cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped National mark onion
- National Mark parsley
- garlic
- breadcrumbs
- anchovies or anchovy essence
- olive oil
- stock
This is worth taking a little trouble over!
Cut six tomatoes in half, scoop out the insides (core and pulp), and cook them – cut side down – in olive oil. When they are half done, turn them over and cook a little longer. (You can keep the juice and pulp of the tomatoes for flavouring a soup or sauce tomorrow).
Meanwhile begin to fry the chopped onion in olive oil, and when it begins to get golden add four peeled and roughly shopped tomatoes, a pinch of chopped parsley and (if you don’t dislike it) a crushed clove of garlic.
cook for ten minutes with the cover on. Then add two tablespoonfuls of breadcrumbs soaked in stock and drained, two pounded anchovies or a spot of anchovy essence, and mix.
Stuff the tomato shells with this mixture, sprinkle them with grilled cheese, some breadcrumbs anda drop of oil, and brown them quickly in the oven. Serve hot or cold, but hot is better.
Lois Elsden 