Stuffed Tomatoes
About the Recipe:
Here is a great recipe if you are looking to try something new, like we were. It’s a great twist on stuffed peppers and is very Italian. It might seem like there are a lot of steps but it is really simple and you will be glad you tried it.
Ingredients:
4 medium size tomatoes
10 oz of ground beef/pork mixture
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic or 2 tbsp minced garlic
2 oz Gruyere cheese
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
8 basil leaves
1/3 cup white wine
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
salt and black pepper to taste
Cooking Instructions:
Slice off tops of the tomatoes. Slice off bottoms of tomatoes if your tomatoes don’t stand up. Scoop out insides, pat dry with paper towel then, sprinkle the inside with salt. Place on a paper towel to drain excess moisture. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion. Cut the basil into thin strips. Grate the Gruyere cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in frying pan, add the chopped onion and garlic, saute until brown. Add the ground meat and wine to the pan. Once browned add the flour and mix, then add the basil and cheese. Cook until cheese is melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon mixture into tomatoes then top with the panko bread crumbs. Place filled tomatoes in baking dish. Bake uncovered for 9 minutes.
Notes:
Instead of butter we used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Mediterranean Blend.
A great way to chop basil is to stack the leaves up with the largest piece on the bottom, roll them and then give them a chop.
Panko bread crumbs were our suggestion, as we love them, but any bread product you like would be great too, such as plain or Italian bread crumbs or even a good crumbled crouton.
A good substitution for the Gruyere cheese would be Parmesan, but the Gruyere has excellent melting qualities. If this cheese was available here for us to buy I am sure it is available pretty much everywhere. Left overs of this cheese should be stored in the freezer and can be used in many dishes such as macaroni and cheese or even on top of hamburgers.
Golden Gyros, West Allis
We’re eating lunch at Golden Gyros in West Allis, our favourite gyro restaurant in Wisconsin.
After meal restaurant rundown:
• As far as gyros go this is the best place to get them in Wisconsin we have found.
• The prices aren’t as friendly as we’d like, but this is OK since it’s a special treat on a drive we don’t make often. We have never finished all of the food we get here though so I guess that makes up for the prices. We leave full and happy!
• Our only complaint is there is no inside seating. They do have some outdoor picnic tables, but since we don’t live there eating in winter is hard. I don’t like messy gyros in the car.
• Aside from the gyros which are delish, they have great burgers and chicken strips. Their fries are also great! They do a homemade custard there as well. Every time we’ve been there people are lined up in their drive thru and people are getting take out. That’s a good sign.
Sgambati’s Pizza, Green Bay
We’re eating at Sgambati’s Pizza in Green Bay right now, we’ve heard from a native New Yorker that the pizza here is better than in New York.
After meal restaurant rundown:
• The prices were great, all three of us ate for about $12
• The garlic knot appetizer was delicious.
• We’ve never eaten a “real” NY pizza, but the crust was crispy, flavourful and exactly like people describe them.
• We bought individual slices so our toppings were only “heated” on top of an already cooked cheese pizza so their flavours didn’t have a chance to “soak in” to the pizza like they do on a whole pie.
Chicago Grill, Appleton
We’re eating at the Chicago Grill, the gyros are pretty tasty.
After meal restaurant rundown:
• The gyros were awesome, we’re firm believers that for the most part gyros outside of Chicago are garbage, but this is one of the few places in Wisconsin that does them right.
• Our orders were correct. This might not sound like a big deal, but none of us like taziki sauce so we ordered our gyros without it, but a lot of places will sauce your gyros anyway because eating gyros without taziki is an “insult to Greece”.
• The atmosphere and employees were really creepy! (When in a gyro restaurant, this is a good thing. Generally the shadier and scarier the place is, the better tasting the food.)
• Sierra got a hamburger because “eating lamb is murder”, and it had a good quality patty, and really nice vegetables on it. Normally in restaurants where gyros/Mediterranean food is the focus they have some American food for the kids but it’s usually a low quality slopped together thing, that wasn’t the case here.