Now, I shouldn't say I hated all tomatoes growing up. No, just raw ones. Don't raise your eyebrow, just tell me you know the taste difference between tomato soup and bruschetta. Raw tomatoes tasted different - I used to think they were too sour. Then one day about five years ago, I decided to order a bagel that was smothered in cream cheese and very garlicky bruschetta. I actually liked it. Then I went from just liking to absolutely loving tomatoes when we went on our honeymoon to Italy.
On our second day in Rome, Gideon and I went on a food tour that focused on the Testaccio neighbourhood. Our guides considered Testaccio to be the heart and soul of food in the city because of its long-standing covered market, its working-class history, and the lack of tourists. We learned many fascinating details about the area, which holds the graveyard where Keats and Shelley are buried, an abandoned meat processing plant, an abandoned soccer field where the Roman team used to cheat on a regular basis, and a mountain made entirely out of shattered terra cotta vases that the ancient Romans had once used to hold olive oil - a hollow mountain, by the way, that is now used as a funky wine cellar.
But anyway, back to tomatoes. One of the highlights of the tour was the tomato vendor's stand. Being a purveyor of tomatoes is already pretty special in Italy, considering that they are used in practically everything there, but this tomato vendor was very special indeed. The guides called him the Tomato Poet.
The Tomato Poet not only carried a selection of over thirty varieties – almost fifty in the summer months! – but he waxed poetic about tomatoes in a very pushy manner. The guides explained that the Tomato Poet wouldn't just let you pick whatever you wanted, rather, he would ask you what you were planning to make and then proceed to tell you which tomatoes to use. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Then he would proceed to inform you that he had a recipe better than the one you would be using. I didn't ask if he provided them on paper or whether you'd have to scramble to write down his instructions.
His behaviour might sound off-putting to some, but his tomatoes totally charmed me. I had already accepted that raw tomatoes aren't sour, but these tomatoes were sweet like candy. We tried several different kinds and I wanted to just keep popping them into my mouth, enjoying these tomatoes that were crisp and fresh, never mushy and bland. Grazie, grazie, I said to him as we left the market. I had a change of heart for good. Tomatoes can and should be delicious.
I came up with this recipe to honour fresh tomatoes in the best way I could think of. Caprese salad is one of Italy's most patriotic dishes, complete with green basil, white bocconcini and red tomatoes. It's also a delicious taste sensation of sweet basil, creamy cheese, crisp tomato and acidic olive oil - however, it can be tough to get all those flavours together in one bite. So I thought, what if you could eat caprese salad on a stick? I once did a job at a luxury hotel where we had to cater a cocktail party for 500 people, and let me tell you that most of those appetizers were served on sticks. It's genius.
I decided to do an appetizer that included all of those flavours mixed right together. I've seen 'sandwiches' done with stacked tomato slices and cheese, but I decided that the cheese should be stuffed right up against the tomatoes and the basil should be stuffed inside of them. I added toasted pine nuts to the stuffing to add another dimension of flavour. So there we go, a burst of Italian goodness in one bite. Thank you, Tomato Poet.
Bocconcini-Stuffed Tomatoes with Basil and Pine Nuts
Adapted from BC Living
Yield: about 20 pieces
2 pints large cherry tomatoes (I used heirlooms for their beautiful colours)
1 250ml/8oz container of small bocconcini
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
2 sprigs basil leaves
1 tsp olive oil
½ tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 box toothpicks/small skewers
Go through the containers of tomatoes and separate out all the ones that can sit flat without toppling over. If you stand them stem-side down you will find that most of the round ones can do this but the oval-shaped ones might not. Save the toppled-over tomatoes to use in other recipes or as a snack.
Slice through the sturdy tomatoes 2/3 way up and set the smaller halves aside. Clean out the seeds and pulp from the bigger halves with a small spoon to make tomato shells. Put them on a plate upside-down to drain. Cover and set aside.
Pick about 25 small leaves off the sprigs of basil to use as garnish. Choose leaves that are large enough to be skewered by the toothpick but also small enough not to cover the bocconcini. Set the garnish leaves aside and remove the rest of the leaves from the stems.
In a food processor, pulse the toasted pine nuts until they resemble a coarse meal. Add the small tomato halves, the large basil leaves, and the olive oil and pulse until the mixture is smooth. Add the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste, then pulse until combined.
To assemble, turn the reserved tomato shells back right-side up, and with a small spoon, stuff each one to the top with the tomato-basil mixture. Skewer a small basil leaf and a bocconcini onto each toothpick, then skewer each tomato right-side up so that none of the stuffing falls out. Serve immediately on a platter.
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