Baked tomatoes, stuffed with saffron-artichoke rice

Serves 4-8

(i.e. one tomato per person as starter or two as a main)

Prepare 30 minutes

Cook 1 hour 40 minutes

A wholesome idea for the large, heirloom tomatoes that are plentiful and (relatively) cheap in the Northern Hemisphere from now into September. These handsome fellows are obviously inspired by various Greek, Italian and French (and more) ways with rice-filled, slow-baked tomatoes, but I’ve included gentle hints of saffron and chopped artichokes to the base of wholegrain rice, bolstered with generous amounts of herbs (N.B. dill and oregano are the stars of the herbs here, but you could definitely replace the latter with dried and add or swap in mint or basil for the parsley). If tracking down brown short grain rice is an issue, just use short grain white/risotto/even pudding. You’ll only need to cook a refined version up the point of evaporating the white wine off in the pan; forget about simmering it down with stock to pre-cook. Remove from the heat at that point, stir in the saffron and proceed with the recipe, sans-stock. There’s a short video link right at the end of this page, in case you were curious about what the brown rice should be doing at the end of its stove-top stint, pre-stuffing. A final note: pine nuts are wincingly-expensive at the time of writing and, though perfect with the saffron, I only used them as I had a couple of spoonfuls leftover from testing another recipe; do substitute sunflower/pumpkin seeds, or chopped walnuts/almonds.

Ingredients

2 tbsp just-boiled water

A pinch of saffron stamens

1 tbsp jarred artichoke oil or olive oil

1 sweet white onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

250g brown short grain rice

Small glass dry white wine

1 litre vegetable stock, or just water in a pinch

280g jar sliced artichoke hearts in oil, drained and chopped

30g pine nuts, toasted

4 sprigs each oregano and thyme, leaves stripped and chopped

A handful each dill and flatleaf parsley, chopped

8 very large, ripe tomatoes (2.5kg)

A little more jarred artichoke oil or extra virgin olive oil, for the dish or tin

Method

Start by making the rice filling. This is essentially a ‘lazy’ risotto, made with similar ingredients, but taking far less care to add the stock gradually, as will become clear. Pour the just-boiled water over the saffron stamens in a small cup and set aside to steep.

Put the tablespoon oil (from the artichoke jar or just use olive oil) in a medium saucepan and set over a lowish heat. Add the onion with a good pinch of salt and sizzle gently, stirring often, for 7-8 minutes, until softened and translucent, but not coloured. Stir in the garlic and cook for barely a minute, then add the rice and stir to coat. Turn the heat up a touch, slosh the wine in (if using – you don’t have to) and simmer until almost evaporated. Now add the stock or water and simmer briskly for 25-30 minutes. Keep a constant eye and stir the mixture often, especially towards the end of the cooking time as it could easily catch as it thickens. By the end, the rice should be somewhere near cooked, but still chalky in texture, and the liquid should be almost gone. Remove from the heat and stir in the steeped saffron mixture.

Preheat the oven to 170°C, fan 150°C, gas mark 3 and set the rice aside to cool a little. Have the tomatoes ready on a chopping board with an empty bowl alongside. Ideally using a serrated knife, cut the tops off the tomatoes horizontally. Scoop the exposed insides out with a spoon – such large tomatoes tend to have quite dense innards – and hold it over the bowl to scrape most of the seeds and their liquid away. This will protect against a watery baked tomato and claggy rice; add the liquid to a gazpacho, a dressing or even a fruit/veg juice. Roughly dice the flesh left behind, discarding any tough inner cores.

Stir this diced tomato flesh into the rice with the chopped artichokes, pine nuts and all the herbs. Add a good grind of black pepper and a little salt, to taste; it should be quite highly-seasoned (it’s fine to taste-check the mixture, even though the rice will be a little under). Put the hollowed-out tomatoes in a large baking dish or tin, first drizzled with oil. Spoon the rice filling into them. Be generous. Replace the lids and drizzle with a little more oil.

Bake the tomatoes for 1 hour, until completely tender, but still holding their shape (just). Serve them warm or at room temperature with any combination of leafy salad, braised greens, lentils or beans, characterful cheese or as part of a barbecue etc.. They are good-tempered and will sit quite happily - or can be chilled for a couple of days or so - but do be wary of reheating rice repeatedly.

This is how the par-cooked rice, with saffron stirred in, should look. This is after its 30 minute simmering time, but before the herbs, artichokes, pine nuts and tomato flesh are added.