These Italian baked stuffed tomatoes are filled with breadcrumbs, grated Pecorino Romano cheese and flavored with fresh herbs. Baked until golden and crisp on top, stuffed tomatoes are delicious enjoyed as a side dish.
There's nothing better than the flavor of juicy, sun-ripened tomatoes to enjoy during the summer months. And Italians do much more than just turn them into tomato sauce to serve on pasta!
Tomato cucumber salad made with just picked tomatoes from my father's garden was on our table several days a week when I was growing up. And then there's my dad's special fried tomatoes with eggs, a favorite any time of day!
So if you have plenty of tomatoes and are not sure what else to make with them, why not stuff them and bake them? A few simple ingredients: breadcrumbs (muddica); grated cheese and fresh herbs with a few capers and an anchovy for extra flavor will transform your basic tomato into this elegant side dish.
Stuffed Tomato Ingredient List
- Tomatoes: medium sized, sun ripened tomatoes such as beafsteak, vine-ripened or heirloom tomatoes work well.
- Breadcrumbs: not dry breadcrumbs but instead use muddica: the crumb of minimum day old or stale bread torn into small pieces by hand or with a food processor.
- Anchovy fillet packed in oil: for extra flavor but may be omitted if you prefer a vegetarian version of this dish.
- Grated cheese: I prefer Pecorino Romano but Parmigiano will do as well.
The following are step by step instructions with images to guide you through this recipe. Please scroll to the end of this post for the detailed printable recipe card.
How to make Baked Stuffed Tomatoes with Breadcrumbs
- Slice the tomatoes tops off and use a spoon to gently scoop out the tomato pulp, reserving it in a bowl. Do not cut through the tomato skin. Lightly salt the hollowed out tomatoes and place them face down on a wire rack to allow excess water to drip out.
- Heat olive oil in a medium sized skillet. Add minced garlic, sauté for 30 seconds. Then add the anchovy fillet. Use the back of your wooden spoon to break it down until it melts into the garlic/oil mixture.
- Stir the reserved tomato pulp and juices. Add salt to taste and simmer until the mixture is thickened and not watery, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
- Stir in the breadcrumbs; grated cheese; chopped parsley, basil, capers; and black pepper.
- Fill the hollowed out tomatoes with the breadcrumb mixture. Do not overfill the tomatoes as the filling expands slightly while baking.
- Bake in a 350 degrees F. preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. You may turn on your broiler in the last minute or two of baking for more color.
Recipe FAQs
Use ripe, but not mushy, tomatoes for best results. Any round medium or large sized tomatoes such as beefsteak; heirloom; or vine-ripened are ideal for stuffing.
Keep leftovers refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat in your oven.
I do not recommend it. The tomatoes as well as the filling will be soggy once defrosted.
I chose not to place the tomato top on the tomato because I want the filling to turn out golden and lightly crisp.
The crumb of day old (or stale) bread is what my family always uses for meatballs or stuffed vegetables. Muddica gives the filling a soft, moist texture. You may read all about how muddica is used in Sicilian cooking here.
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More Italian tomato recipes!
Baked Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe with Breadcrumbs
Ingredients
- 6 large round tomatoes beefsteak, heirloom, vine-ripened or other
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 anchovy fillet packed in oil
- 3 tbsp. olive oil plus extra for drizzling over the stuffed tomatoes
- 1½ cups breadcrumbs from day old or stale bread, crusts removed
- ¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese or Parmigiano
- 1 tbsp. capers roughly chopped
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- 3-4 basil leaves chopped
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a casserole dish with olive oil.
- Slice the tomatoes tops off and gently scoop out the tomato pulp, reserving it in a bowl. I use both a spoon and pairing knife to cut through the tomato pulp. Do not cut through the tomato skin.
- Lightly salt the interior of the tomatoes and place them face down on a wire rack to allow excess water to drip out.
- Heat olive oil in a medium sized skillet. Add minced garlic, sauté for 30 seconds. Then add the anchovy fillet. Use the back of your wooden spoon to break it down until it melts into the garlic/oil mixture.
- Stir the reserved tomato pulp and juices. Add salt to taste and simmer until the mixture is thickened and not watery, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
- Stir in the breadcrumbs; grated cheese; chopped parsley, basil; capers and black pepper.
- Fill the hollowed out tomatoes with the breadcrumb mixture. Do not overfill the tomatoes as the filling expands slightly while baking.
- Bake in a 350 degrees F. preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. You may turn on your broiler in the last minute or two of baking for more color.
- Serve hot.
Anna Bucciarelli
Don't know if I ever mentioned to you that although mama was from Naples she learned lots of her recipes and cooking tchniques from papa who was from Reggio, Calabria, right at the very tip of the boot, almost touching Sicily, thus many of his cooking lessons to mama in their early days together are reflective of Sicilian cookery. Mama was only a girl when thy married, she waw 17, he was 33, which seems odd but not so much back in their day. Many of their contemporaries were engaged in such marriages, men much older than the women they married. And, you are right, during summer and early fall my town here in New England does have a farmer's market right on our town common. Days are beginning to shorten, however, so the market will not last much longer. Oh, woe is me!
Nadia
Hi Anna, it does not surprise me to hear how many recipes from Reggio Calabria may resemble Sicilian dishes. They are so close! Alas the days are shortening already and I do feel that autumn is in the air and I too need to head out to my local farmer's market soon. I plan on roasting peppers to freeze as well as eggplant so that I can make dishes such as parmigiana, eggplant cutlets and pasta alla Norma during the winter months. I delight in seeing my freezer full of local produce to use during the winter. Hope you make it to the market soon!
Anna Bucciarelli
I love this recipe ... it is exactly how mama made them and as I have done for many of my younger years.. ALAS, I can no longer maintain much of a garden and have just one potted tomato plant, one potted pepper, plenty of basil, parsley, thyme, and rosemary, my year round herb plants of course, but that is about all I can manage at my ripe age of 89+.. I will probably not have enough tomatoes of the right size to stuff and roast and supermarket tomatoes are just as awful as awful can get. If God will allow even one big(ish) tomato from my potted plant, I will definitely take the opportunity to stuff and roast it ... maybe I will include the lesser sized ones to keep it company in my oven. As always, thank you so much for sharing ... your recipes are welcome to me and I am sure to many others ... you are born teacher and I love hearing fromAnna Bucciarelli you! God bless you and all those you hold dear.
Nadia
Thank you dear Anna, so glad to hear this is how your mother prepared her tomatoes! It sounds like you have some of the more necessary items in your garden to prepare this recipe. I agree, store bought tomatoes are not quite right, however during these months you may have access to a local farmer's market in order to get better tomatoes, I hope! Thank you, as always, for your kind comments. I look forward to them!