How to Make Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes That Don’t Get Mushy

At Panificio Bonci, a renowned bakery in Rome, Chris encountered these simple stuffed and roasted tomatoes with potato wedges baked in the same dish. A summer staple, this dish typically is served at room temperature or chilled.

To make them, the cook hollowed out 20 large tomatoes and transferred their innards to a pitcher. To these innards, he added a ton of fresh basil, salt and pepper, dried oregano, garlic cloves and plenty of olive oil. He blended everything, then stirred in parboiled rice. The tomato-rice mixture then was poured back into the tomatoes, which he drizzled with oil and lidded with the tomato bottoms. The final touch was par-cooked potato wedges, which he tucked into the cracks between the tomatoes before covering the dish in foil and baking.

When recreating this dish, we found it tricky to properly cook the starchy, highly absorbent Arborio rice in the hollowed-out tomatoes. Using a combination of tomato juices and water as the liquid did the trick; for an evenly tender texture without any mushiness, we also soaked the rice in the liquid prior to cooking. The timing is rather persnickety. We found that 45 minutes was just the right amount of time to get the rice tender, as well as for heating the oven and pre-roasting the potatoes so the wedges, nestled into gaps in the baking dish, emerge fully tender with the tomatoes after baking.