small bites: Tofu Stuffed Amorosas

Tomatoes may be out of season in Seattle, but when you are at Pike Place Market and Sosio's Produce (one of the highstalls), you can buy these Sweet Amorosa tomatoes without a worry. I can guarantee they will be good -- raw or cooked!


This was just one of the simple "small bites" I made for our multi-course New Year's Eve dinner. I stuffed sweet amorosas with tofu crisped in Italian herbs and spices. It was a delight! I had never seen Italian style tofu before but we will enjoy it many times again ;)

I used approximately:
8 sweet amorosas, cored and with tops sliced
1/2 cup extra firm tofu, cubed into small pieces
1 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
a couple pinches crushed, dried basil


My method:
1. Core tomatoes. Sprinkle a couple grains of salt in each and turn them upside down on a wire rack. This will drain excess water and prevent them from getting soggy and losing their shape.
2. In a small sauté pan, heat the oil and toss in the red pepper flakes.
3. Add tofu, basil, salt, and pepper.
4. Toss and stir till you have some nice, crispy edges on the tofu.
5 a. You can stuff the tomatoes and serve!
5 b. Alternately, you can let the tofu cool if you have other dishes to prepare. Turn your oven to 350 F (175 C). Stuff your tomatoes and bake for 10 minutes before you serve. I did it this way because I was skeptical about my tomatoes being sweet enough -- it tasted amazing! Brian is not a tomato lover and even he ate them :)

The crispiness of the tofu is balanced out by the burst of flavors in the tomato. As soon as you put the whole thing in your mouth and chew, it is like fireworks!