Tomates Farcies – Stuffed Tomatoes
Tomates farcies are one of the great dishes of French home cooking. Ripe tomatoes, hollowed out and packed with a savory filling, then baked until the top is golden and the tomatoes have become soft and sweet underneath. It looks impressive on the table, but it comes from a kitchen tradition built on using what’s on hand.
Where tomates farcies come from
Tomates farcies belong to Provence, in the south of France. The dish grew out of country cooking, a way to stretch leftover meat, bread, and herbs into a full meal. Every household added its own touch, so there’s no single correct version. Some cooks use beef, some use sausage meat or pork, some fold in rice instead of bread. Herbes de Provence, that dried mix of thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and savory, shows up in most versions and gives the filling its regional signature.
Stuffing vegetables goes back much further than Provence itself. The technique has roots across the Mediterranean, and appears in cooking traditions going back to the ancient Greeks. Zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and cabbage leaves all get the same treatment in French kitchens, tomate farcie is simply the most well known of the family.
Tomates Farcies
Ingredients
- 4 Large Tomatoes or 8 Small Tomatoes
- 200 Grams Pork Meat (7 oz)
- 300 Grams 1.33 cups Beef Meat (10.5 oz)
- 3 Onions
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Bunch Parsley
- 150 Milliliters Olive Oil (5 floz)
- 100 Grams Breadcrumbs & Keep a little extra to sprinkle (3.5 oz)
- 50 Milliliters Milk (1.5 floz)
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 230°C (450°F, Gas Mark 7-8).
- Cut the tops off the tomatoes and carefully hollow them out, collecting the seeds and pulp in a container. Blend the pulp and set it aside.
- In a frying pan, brown the pork meat, keeping it well chopped. Cook until slightly crispy, then drain in a colander if necessary to remove excess fat.
- In a small bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk and set aside.
- Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic cloves. Chop the parsley.
- In the same frying pan, lightly brown the onions and garlic in a little olive oil without letting them color. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the browned pork meat, beef meat, soaked breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, and a little of the blended tomato pulp to the bowl - use just enough to moisten the mixture, and any remaining pulp can be reserved or discarded. Mix everything thoroughly. The mixture should be moist and not too dry, add more tomato pulp if needed. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
- Arrange the hollowed tomatoes in a large baking dish.
- Fill each tomato generously with the meat mixture, pressing it in well.
- Sprinkle a little breadcrumbs on top of each stuffed tomato, then replace the tomato tops.
- Drizzle the tomatoes lightly with olive oil.
- Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the filling is cooked through.
- Serve the Tomates Farcies hot, accompanied by rice or pasta.
Notes
Take It Further in the Kitchen
If you’d rather learn tomate farcie and dishes like it hands-on, our French Market Tour & Cooking Class starts at the market with one of our chefs, choosing seasonal produce together before heading back to our Montmartre kitchen to cook. The menu is built around what’s fresh that day, so what you make will shift with the season, but it’s exactly the kind of country cooking tomate farcie comes from. The class ends with a sit-down four-course meal, wine included.