On The Garden Lady this morning we start off with a postcard about weeding. I also share the recipe for rice stuffed, garden tomatoes that is printed below. Weeds and tomatoes: essential parts of late-August.

Rice Stuffed Tomatoes

My mother-in-law, Misa Fornari, used to make this in the late summer. It’s a seasonal dish that is only good with garden ripened tomatoes and fresh basil. Hint: don’t skimp on the olive oil. 

Ingredients:  Large, garden ripened tomatoes, rice, freshly picked basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Use enough large tomatoes to fill a baking dish so that they touch each other.
Cut the tops off the tomatoes and save those tops
Scoop the juice and seeds into a bowl.
If you want, you can strain that pulp and juice to get rid of the seeds – optional. Mash pulp with a fork. 
Lightly coat the pan with olive oil.
Put the hollowed out tomatoes in the pan, bottom down.
In each tomato, put a tablespoon of the rice of your choice.
Add roughly chopped basil into each tomato.
Add 1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil in each
Divide the juice between the tomatoes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Top with the lids
Bake at 350 until you see the rice pushing up – about 30 to 40 minutes depending on what type of rice you’ve used.

Serve room temperature or cold.

Cut the tops off of large tomatoes and put them in a baking dish so that they are touching and the tomatoes fill the dish. Measure in the rice and top with the reserved juice and pulp, plus slices of fresh basil. 

Cover those tomatoes with the tops you cut off earlier.

Here is how the dish looks when it’s finished. The rice sometimes oozes out. Because the rice is cooked in tomato juices and basil, it’s more flavorful than rice cooked with water.