Pimento Cheese And Sausage-Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe

What can't be made better with a little mayo and some cheese? Pimento cheese is a gooey Southern staple known for its mild heat and versatility. It can be made a dozen different ways, but at its core is usually made up of mayonnaise, cheese, and pimento, a small red chile that has a mild heat and a subtle sweetness. Mixed together, the creamy, cheesy spread graces sandwiches, crackers, chips, and crostinis for a unique and delicious treat. It's only natural, then, to use it for dinner, too.

Pimento cheese spread makes it easy to pull together a bold and flavorful stuffed tomato in no time, oozing with cheese and pimentos in every bite. Stuffed with crumbled sausage, pimento cheese, and a medley of aromatics, the tender tomatoes serve as a flavorful, juicy vessel to a spicy and savory filling. Perfect for a light dinner or a filling side, these tomatoes developed by Michelle McGlinn are a charming addition to your dinner plate any time of the year; no one even has to know that you used a simple cheese spread (your secret is safe with us).

You hardly need any ingredients to pull together these elegant-looking tomatoes. First, grab six large tomatoes. What you're looking for here is large, heavy-bottomed tomatoes with a "hat", or the stem still attached. Avoid roma tomatoes, which are oblong, and heirloom, which are too juicy. You want a tomato-on-the-vine or beefsteak that can be scooped and used as a "bowl" for the filling. If you can't find any tomatoes with the stem still attached, that's okay too (it's just cute).

From there, you'll just need Italian sausage, garlic, shallot, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, olive oil, and pimento cheese spread. You can make your own spread or buy it from the store for an easy shortcut.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Slice the hats off of the tomatoes and set aside.

Scoop out the insides of each tomato, chop roughly, and transfer to a skillet.

Place the tomatoes upside down on a paper-towel lined sheet and let dry while preparing the filling.

Add garlic and shallot to the tomato mixture in the skillet and saute until aromatics are cooked and tomato is reduced to a paste, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a bowl and add the pork, pimento cheese spread, bread crumbs, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Place the tomatoes in a baking dish and season with remaining ½ teaspoon salt and pepper.

Stuff the tomatoes with the pork mixture.

Place the tomato hats on top of each tomato and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until tomatoes are wrinkly and pork is cooked through. Serve immediately.

The best thing about this recipe is its versatility. Whether you have leftover filling or simply want to change up the recipe a bit, there are countless ways to use the filling elsewhere. You can first stuff it into other vegetables — our favorite way to use this filling is in stuffed banana peppers, which amp up the heat a little bit more. Bake the peppers the exact same way as the tomatoes, removing from the heat when the peppers are tender and the sausage is cooked through. You can also stuff bell peppers, eggplant, baked spaghetti squash, and even mushroom caps with the filling, baking until both vessel and filling are cooked through and tender.

You can also use the filling in other ways besides stuffed into veggies. For example, you can brown the sausage with the mixture of aromatics, then mix with the cheese and breadcrumbs. From there, you can add the mixture to sandwiches, combine with cornbread stuffing, pile on top of nachos, or simply eat with crackers as a dip. You can also get creative and form the mixture into meatballs, then bake and serve as-is. Our suggestion: serve the meatballs skewered with a roasted cherry tomato.

Tomatoes are fairly foolproof, but this method can be a little tricky to get right. Modeled after the French Provençal stuffed tomatoes, or tomates farcies, the goal is to roast the tomatoes until tender and wrinkled, but not falling apart nor browned. In the tomates farcies method, white wine or another liquid is often used in the bottom of the pot to steam the tomatoes until tender. With our stuffed tomatoes, you don't need the wine, but should keep an eye on the tomatoes to ensure they aren't completely falling apart.

To do this, cook the tomatoes as written, being sure to completely drain and dry the inner tomato before stuffing. Depending on the tomatoes used, you may notice cracking and splitting while the tomatoes are in the oven. To avoid this, cover the dish with foil to encourage steaming, keeping the tomatoes more intact. If your tomatoes are a bit tender to start with — this happens if they are overripe — refrigerate them for 30 minutes or up to overnight to help firm them before stuffing and roasting.