Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes à la Bonne Femme. Gluten-free

Stuffed tomatoes are a standard classic French pre-takeaway takeaway and interestingly are slow rather than fast food. Every traiteur and charcuterie has them in season as a ready made dish to take home and heat up. Most butchers' shop in France make one daily ready-made hot dish and stuffed tomatoes à la bonne femme is again a seasonal favourite. I've always thought how interesting it is that many countries, France is just one, maintain this old tradition and link with the past, when people didn't necessarily have ovens or maybe wanted an oven-baked meal without going to a restaurant. I really loved, when I was in Portugal, seeing people, mainly the elderly coming to restaurants with their fish, bought straight off the boats and getting them, cooked on a restaurant's barbecue. What better way to get a good nutritious hot meal and a chat!

Here I'm using cherry tomatoes and these make great hot savouries in a bite sized edition!

Cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow in a small space in a container or hanging basket. If you have a greenhouse or a window sill you can keep them producing right up to the first frosts. Tomatoes are perennials, so with care you can keep the plants from year to year.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 400°F

INGREDIENTS

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes à la Bonne Femme Recipe. Gluten-free

(makes 16)

16 cherry tomatoes

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 chipolata sausage or equivalent in sausagemeat

½ teaspoon herbes de Provence

Butter, coconut or your chosen oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

METHOD

Rinse and dry the tomatoes.

Slice off the top of each to make a lid and set these to one side.

Using a teaspoon, carefully remove the inside of each tomato.

Sauté the red onion until it begins to soften. Add the chopped interior of the tomato and let this simmer briskly until it loses most of its liquid.

Split the skins of the sausage and add the meat to the pan and cook these until the sausagemeat has browned and the sauce has thickened.

Add the herbs and mix well.

Using a teaspoon stuff each tomato with the filling and place on a buttered tray.

Put a 'lid' onto each tomato.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cherry tomatoes are cooked.

Allow them to cool slightly if you are taking them straight to the table. Tomatoes hold their heat too well!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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