Some women go through shoe phases --- strappy sandals one summer, high heels the next.  I go through vegetable phases.  For the longest time, I would only buy Roma tomatoes.  Then, we only bought the large salad tomatoes because the Roma tomatoes arrived in our stores yellow-green and stone-hard.  We even flirted with cherry tomatoes but found them too small and annoying to cook with on a regular basis.

But, now, I have found the one.  The one tomato that I shall love and cherish and hold to . . . that is, until a better tomato comes along --- like the ruby delicacies we found in Montepulciano.  These little beauties are Campari tomatoes.  They fit perfectly in the palm of my hand and are so cute that I could pinch their little cheeks.  That cuteness along with a thin skin and sweet flesh had me instantly hooked.

Stuffed with goat cheese, green onions, and basil, they turn into an appetizer worthy of a dinner party or you can place them on some salad greens and, presto, salad for two! 

Not convinced yet?  Well, I hate to go all Rachael Ray on you, but you can make these in way less than 30 minutes and they don't involve any EVOO.   

Goat Cheese Stuffed Tomatoes

Time: 10 minutes (if even that long)
Serves: 4 people (as appetizer), 2 people (for a green salad)

Ingredients

4 Campari tomatoes (or other small tomatoes)
1 1/2 ounces Chevre goat cheese
1 green onion, thinly sliced
10 basil leaves, sliced

Directions

1. Slice stem-end off tomatoes.  Hollow out interior and reserve tomato flesh.

2. Mix goat cheese, tomato flesh (but not seeds), green onion, and basil in a small bowl until goat cheese becomes soft and creamy.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Stuff goat cheese mixture into tomatoes until slightly mounded.

stacked beets and goat cheese

grilled carrot and avocado salad

oven-baked amarillos

crusty creamy white beans with slow roasted tomatoes

Recipes

07/15/2009 22:33

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

Beautiful and simple! I absolutely love it :D

Reply

07/19/2009 15:36

Akila

Thanks Lorraine! :)

Reply

08/04/2009 15:09

Carla

This sounds delicious, I'm going to try making these this week!

Reply

08/04/2009 19:22

Akila

Thanks Carla!

Reply

06/17/2011 03:26

Laurel

Hi Akila, I randomly stumbled across your page here when I googled "goat cheese stuffed tomatoes". Such a simple dish and so many fun twists you can do to make it your own. Love it! But more importantly (gasp) than stuffed tomatoes, is your blog and the whole concept behind it. I admire your adventurous spirit, artistic and tech savvy, and the fact that you are able to have such obvious fun and share it with people all over the world. In the past six years I too have been traveling extensively with my boyfriend while going to college. I'm pretty obsessive about keeping a journal and taking massive amounts of pictures which I then turn into albums. Recently we started talking about the bookshelves of travel memoirs that I've accumulated and how it might be fun to start a blog about the places we've been and experiences we've had. Soooo....(you might see where this is headed) do you have any advice for a wanna-be blogger? Like how you got started, how to use the blog format etc? I'd appreciate it so much!

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06/27/2011 11:35

Akila

Thanks so much Laurel! I am always excited to meet other travelers out there (especially those just starting up or soon to be starting up blogs). On advice on starting up a blog, there's so much out there but I think it boils down to a few things:
1. Set up an easy-to-use site with your own domain name. Use Wordpress and, if you're not tech-savvy, consider buying a custom theme.
2. Write content that you care about and write as often as you can.
3. Use photography or video to brighten up your virtual space.
4. Join Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites to join the travel blogger community --- people are really friendly so you'll enjoy getting to know others who have the same passion.
5. And, most of all, have fun. If it isn't fun, then you shouldn't be doing it. :)

Akila's recent blog post: in real life: thoughts on tbex 2011

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