Stuffed Vegetables
There is something intrinsically charming about stuffed vegetables. Why is this? There seems to be a deep-rooted human love of food stuffed into other food; every culture has some variant. Perhaps it's the idea of food getting extra flavor from its edible "pot". Perhaps it's just a fascination with layers.
Stuffed vegetables appeal to us on an additional level. They speak to our love of individual servings, where each diner gets their own little package rather than pulling it from a common trough. This is a modern trend, but it is also an ancient one, a practice that every so often rides a wave of temporary popularity before we revert to "family-style" dishes, arguably more convivial than their individually plated cousins but also debatably less elegant. There is something appealing about having your own portion, prepared especially for you.
For the cook, stuffed vegetables are a boon. Like omelettes, they are an easy way to stretch a small amount of some ingredient. Top with bread crumbs or cheese, pop under the broiler, and you get a brown, crispy crust that balances against the soft filling. Presentation takes care of itself. And during summer, stuffed vegetables offer a reprieve from the kitchen's heat; they take only a small amount of oven time.
Melissa and I have enjoyed two stuffed vegetables dinner recently. One, for which we (sadly!) don't have pictures featured a small summer squash filled with squash, tomato, and cornmeal. I perched it on a slab of tomato, and served it as a light dinner. More recently (and here the tomato split, so the pictures are not very illustrative), we had tomatoes stuffed with pork rillettes, tomato, and garlic. I topped with bread crumbs and served on a bed of herbed spätzle, the Germanic dumplings.
Basic Stuffed Vegetables
Find a squat round vegetable (a tomato works nicely, a soft squash does even better). Cut off the top and scoop out the center, being careful not to pierce the sides. Mix the veggie guts with whatever other ingredients you consider appropriate. Raw meat would be a bad choice, since the vegetable won't cook long enough to cook the meat. Smoked sausage, however, would probably be excellent. Spoon the filling back into the vegetable. Either top with the "lid" you cut off earlier, or buttered bread crumbs, or cheese. Brush with oil. Bake at 350° for fifteen minutes and check to see if they're done. Serve as you like.
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