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Stuffed Tomatoes, Provincial Style

Tomatoes filled with a savory mixture of shallots, mushrooms, ham, and herbs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Tomatoes, Provincial Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the tomatoes by removing the tops and scooping out the insides.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the butter or sweet oil and lightly fry the shallots.

  3. Add the mushrooms and chopped tomatoes, cooking until moisture is almost reduced.

  4. Stir in the bread crumbs, parsley, ham, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Mix well for 5 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool.

  6. Add the egg yolks and mix again.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Drizzle sweet oil on top.

  3. Arrange in a pan.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

  5. Serve with brown Italian sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Their flesh and juices make the body of the filling and keep the stuffed shells moist while baking.
Mushrooms
Release moisture as they cook, adding earthy savoury depth to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the filling so it holds together rather than running out.
Egg yolks
Bind the cooled filling and help it set and turn golden in the oven.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the sweet tomato.

The step that matters

Cook the mushroom and tomato mixture until the moisture is almost gone. If liquid remains, the filling stays wet and loose, so the egg yolks cannot bind it and it may leak from the tomatoes while baking.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, butter, mushroom, bread, parsley, ham, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, butter, mushroom, bread, parsley, ham, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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