Sprout & Pea

After my first expe­ri­ence with roast­ing toma­toes, I was inspired to try stuff­ing them with some­thing. Most recipes I found called for some kind of cheese or meat stuff­ing, but I wanted to go a slightly health­ier rout. Since I love white beans, I decided I would puree some to make my fill­ing.

I tossed some can­nellini beans, rose­mary, gar­lic and a lit­tle olive oil and veg­etable broth into the food proces­sor and I had a tasty lit­tle dip that was the per­fect con­sis­tency to sit inside some plum toma­toes. Of course, any good recipe calls for a lit­tle bit of cheese, so I decided to top this one off with some grated parme­san. Here’s how I made this…

4 plum toma­toes
1 can can­nellini beans
1 clove of gar­lic
1 1/​2 tbsp fresh chopped rose­mary
1 tbsp extra vir­gin olive oil (plus a lit­tle extra to coat toma­toes)
2 tbsp veg­etable broth
salt and pep­per to taste
1 cup fresh grated parme­san cheese

Slice toma­toes in half– length­wise– and scoop out and dis­card insides. Coat toma­toes with a lit­tle olive oil and a sprin­kle of salt. Place on bak­ing sheet lined with parch­ment paper and set aside. In a food proces­sor, com­bine can­nellini beans (drain and dis­card liq­uid in can), gar­lic, rose­mary, olive oil and veg­etable broth. Blend until smooth. Add salt and pep­per to taste.
Fill toma­toes with bean puree, mak­ing sure not to fill higher than edge of tomato. Sprin­kle parme­san on top and driz­zle a lit­tle olive oil over the cheese. Roast in the oven for about 15 min­utes at 400 degrees. Cheese should brown a tiny bit, but toma­toes should not fall apart. Makes 8 toma­toes– you can use remain­ing bean puree as a dip.