You will love these summer stuffed tomatoes with the aroma and aura of the city, they will enchant you with their sweetness and aromas.
Politike Stuffed Tomatoes with Corinthian Raisins and Pine Nuts
The recipe comes directly from my mother-in-law from Politika who, after many years, entrusted me with the little secrets for the best stuffed tomatoes you will ever eat.
Although my mother also spent part of her life in Constantinople, when she said she was going to make gemista, she always meant tomatoes. She always added pine nuts along with plenty of Corinthian raisins — the “black gold,” as my father used to call them — and she never used peppers because he didn’t like them.
And always, always, she would add extra rice to fill in the large gaps she carefully left between the tomatoes. The big aluminum baking pan for the gemista, which holds about 16–18 tomatoes, waits every summer to get back to work…
Fresh ingredients
For tomatoes, now, prefer to buy outdoor tomatoes from a producer and not greenhouse tomatoes of the same shape and size.
Especially if you find them in a local market, prefer them because they are even sweeter…
I usually buy outdoor tomatoes from a producer in Velo Corinthias and as soon as he shows them on his counter, it automatically signals the start of the summer stuffed tomatoes.
And we’ve reached the rice!
Here, tastes play the primary role and completely differentiate the final appearance and taste!
There is no right or wrong! Don’t feel guilty…
Others prefer them spiky, so if you’re of that school, you’ll use Carolina.
Others want them more pulpy, so you’ll prefer glazed or fancy rice.
I prefer them, as I learned to eat them from my grandmother and mother, to be mushy and juicy, so I always add glaze!
We calculate the rice at about one full spoon per tomato, if you have a smaller pan and want to adjust your ingredients more correctly.
Traditional recipe from Constantinople
After all, her mother-in-law’s recipe was made using the same technique.
The only difference was in the baking pan, because her mother-in-law made them in a round, galvanized bronze pan.
She used this pan only for stuffed vegetables, which she cooked together with tomatoes, peppers, round zucchini, and even eggplant, as I had seen on some occasions…
As you can imagine, summer stuffed vegetables vary from home to home!
Here is the recipe from my home that I have been eating since I was a child…
You can adapt it to your own tastes…
I have seen many crazy things put in them, just so they can say they have advanced Greek cuisine, but I think the trick with stuffed vegetables, as with most classic Greek dishes, is to serve them in a way that takes the other person back to their taste memories!
To awaken their memories, to leave them speechless at the first bite, to make them feel like children again, just like Anton Igor, the critic in Ratatouille, who was turned into a pillar of salt and traveled back to his childhood cocoon…
Just like cabbage rolls or even lemon-flavored goat… These dishes need the classic, old-fashioned, mom-made flavor! They should awaken memories…
Ingredients for Summer Stuffed Vegetables
12 large red tomatoes, pitted
1/2 kilo potatoes
250 ml. extra virgin olive oil I use a rare Cretan olive oil called Eliama
12 tsp. granulated sugar for the tomatoes
2 tbsp. sugar for the sauce
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup. sweet white wine
3 more tomatoes for the sauce
1 1/2 cups. black Corinthian raisins
1 cup. pine nuts
2 grated zucchini
18 heaped tablespoons fancy or glazed rice
6 pcs. finely chopped onions by hand not in the food processor
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1 pc. mint, finely chopped
1 whole basil, finely chopped
12 tsp. breadcrumbs
salt, pepper
Preparation
First, we choose our baking pan where our stuffed tomatoes will be baked and we place them in it so that they all fit and leave enough space between them.
My old aluminum baking pan for stuffed tomatoes holds 16 tomatoes, but I always put twelve and leave room for the additional rice and potatoes.
We choose large, ripe, round tomatoes, wash them well and cut a “lid” from the stem with a sharp knife so that when we remove the flesh, the hard part of the tomato is also removed.
#tip1 We pierce the tomato with our knife in two or three places from the bottom so that the juices from the pan can circulate.
#tip2 This way our tomatoes will cook faster but they will also be juicier inside.
We empty the tomato flesh with a spoon carefully so that it does not fall apart and put it in a bowl.
Do not reach all the way to the skin. Leave a little, about a centimeter of tomato.
With a knife, not in a blender, we chop all the pulp from the tomatoes along with the three additional tomatoes, which we have peeled and season with salt and pepper.
Salt and pepper the inside of the tomatoes. Place them in the baking pan where we will bake the food.
Add a teaspoon of sugar to each tomato.
Sauté the onion with half the oil until lightly browned and add the pine nuts and raisins.
When the pine nuts start to brown, add the rice and continue sautéing.
Add the tomato paste and continue.
When the ingredients are combined, deglaze with the wine.
Once the wine has evaporated, add the tomato juice.
Add the garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, mint and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
The filling
With a spoon, fill the tomatoes almost to the top and pour the rest of the mixture in between.
Cover them with their lids and place them in the baking dish. One close to the other, leaving room for the extra rice, or spread them out and place the potatoes and extra rice in between.
Pour the remaining oil over the tomatoes and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Peel, wash and cut the potatoes into wedges.
Season with salt and pepper and place them between the tomatoes.
Bake the summer stuffed buns in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 50 minutes, covered with aluminum foil.
Then remove the aluminum foil, increase the temperature to 200 degrees. Bake for another 15 – 20 minutes, checking frequently so they don’t burn.
They are ready when the outer skin begins to wrinkle #tritomistiko and the lid with the toast begins to grab…
Let them cool a bit and absorb the excess liquid and serve.
And if you leave them for the next day, they will magically become even more delicious…
Of course, a barrel-aged feta cheese should not be missing. Along with a fresh, rustic bread next to the summer stuffed vegetables.
Enjoy your meal.
Recipe from the mother’s notebook and the secrets of the Politissa mother-in-law…
Texts and photosby GiorgioGrigor
