Egg and Pesto Stuffed Tomatoes

This is the time of year where you try to figure out how many ways you can eat a tomato. I always feel vaguely guilty for squandering a wonderful opportunity because my first inclination is always to add some olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette and eat them raw. But you can only eat that dish so many times before it becomes boring and then I ignore tomatoes until January, when I desperately wish they were in season instead of turnips.

Because seriously, in the battle between tomatoes and turnips is it really a question?

So this recipe was a nice discovery. It’s quick, easy, and it’s another way to eat fresh tomatoes. Win all around!

Egg and Pesto Stuffed Tomatoes

Barely adapted from SmittenKitchen

Smitten made a beautiful romaine lettuce pesto in her version, but given that I tend to have basil pesto on hand in my freezer and I always have eggs, I went for a slightly different version of her recipe. It still works great with traditional pesto; the basil and garlic play off wonderfully with the egg and tomato. It’s like eating bruschetta without the bread and topped with a poached egg – and I love a good egg.

And if you'd like to make it more like bruschetta, have a pice of bread handy. That way you can mop up any bits you missed on the first go-round and not miss a single taste of pesto, egg, or tomato.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons pesto

2 eggs

2 tomatoes

grated Parmesan cheese

cooking spray/dash of olive oil

sea salt

pepper

Equipment:

Baking pan

Put baking rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 400.

Prepare the tomatoes: cut the top off each tomato (about 1/8 inch) with a shark knife. Scrape the pulp and seeds out of each gently. A grapefruit spoon will make this easier, but at this point in the summer your tomatoes should be ripe enough to empty using a regular butter knife and your fingers. Make sure that the walls of the tomato are intact – you’ll be using these as cups for the eggs so you don’t want any holes! Turn each tomato over and slice a small sliver off the bottoms of the tomatoes to help them sit levelly on the baking pan.

Lightly spray or oil the bottom of the cooking pan before placing the tomatoes inside, right-side up. Spoon 1 tablespoon pesto into each tomato. Crack an egg into each tomato and lightly season with salt and pepper.

Bake eggs in tomato until the whites are set but the yolk is still runny, about 18 to 22 minutes.

Top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Serves 1