00743 11 40 C 11 55. 007431 69 40 69 Eggplant casserole with ground beef and rice 47.
This stuffed tomatoes recipe with ground beef is easy, delicious, and works as a side-dish and comforting main dish. Italian stuffed tomatoes baked to perfectionI love light dinners, especially when they are made with healthy ingredients and taste delicious like this stuffed tomato recipe. My grandma made stuffed vegetables at least once a week from zucchini boats, bell pepper, eggplant, tomatoes and filled them with a meat mixture topped with melty cheese. This stuffed tomato recipe pair fenomenal with some baked beef empanadas that are crispy and flaky delicious!
Highly recommended to make when you have extra ground beef. For the ingredients, I use lean beef as it gives the mixture a richer flavor and fresh herbs instead of dry, but it’s possible to use dried herbs if you can’t get fresh ones. Prepping the stuffed tomatoes takes 20 minutes and then about an hour to bake. Place the tomatoes on the chopping board and cut the tops of each one to create a lid. Scoop the seeds out into a strainer over a bowl and press the seeds so the juices come through. Discard the seeds, scoop out and dice the tomato pulp, and place it in the bowl with the juice.
Add the ground meat, garlic, onion, herbs, olive oil, cheese, salt, and pepper to the bowl and mix with a spoon until well combined. Fill the hollowed-out tomatoes with the ground meat and rice mixture, and arrange them on a baking dish. Lay the lids on top, drizzle some olive oil over, and bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Carefully scoop out a small bit of rice and taste to see if it is soft and cooked through. If the rice and tomatoes are soft, you can remove them from the oven and let them cool for 15 minutes before serving. If you can’t find asiago cheese, you can substitute it for a similar cheese like parmesan, pecorino romano, feta cheese, or jack cheese.
Make them vegetarian by substituting the ground meat for your favorite chopped veggies. I sometimes use red bell pepper and carrot when I make stuffed vegetarian tomatoes. Do not scrape every last bit of tomato pulp from its shell. Use a melon baller or small spoon to remove the pulp, but make sure to not puncture or break the shell. Choose heirloom tomatoes of similar shape and size. Once the stuffed tomatoes are cooked through, bake them for 10 minutes topped with mozzarella cheese or more asiago cheese until the cheese has melted. They use the same prep process described in this recipe but with a slight difference in the filling.
