Props to Rachael Ray's Assistant: Stuffed Tomatoes With Eggs Baked-In

A few weeks ago I happened to be thumbing through the February issue of Every Day With Rachael Ray. This is a rarity. I highly dislike Rachael Ray (I find her obnoxiously chipper, and I can't stand her made-up food lingo. EVOO? No.), but I will read anything when I'm bored, and I was bored. I came across a recipe featuring two of my favorite foods, eggs and tomatoes, and begrudgingly decided to give it a try because it looked so easy and so good.

It's an awesome recipe, but I don't like Rachael Ray any more than I did before I made it. I mean, she doesn't actually develop every single recipe that goes into her magazine, right? The chances that she wrote this recipe herself are pretty slim, I think. So I'd like to give some props to the assistant, editor, test kitchen worker or sous chef that came up with this meal, because it's awesome. And easy. And has two of my favorite foods in it! Also, mushrooms, which I usually dislike but really like in this recipe, so whoever concocted this deserves double props, actually.


The original recipe calls to serve this with a little salad and some sliced flank steak. I don't really eat steak, but I made it with this recipe for my boyfriend and he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, so try it that way if you're a red meat eater. It's still really good with just a salad and a chicken breast, or even just some rice.

Stuffed Tomatoes With Eggs Baked-In (slightly adapted from the February 2011 issue of Every Day With Rachael Ray)
hands-on time: 10 minutes 
total time: 35 minutes


2 tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2 an onion
1/4 of an 8 oz box of mushrooms
garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Chop the onion into very small pieces and cut the top off of the tomatoes, then scoop out the innards of each tomato (seeds, liquid, everything). Set aside.

3. Saute the onion with garlic and olive oil until translucent, about three minutes or so. Add the mushrooms and the tomato innards and saute until the mushrooms are soft. Season with salt and pepper.

not my finest picture ever

4. Scoop the onion and mushroom mixture into each hollowed-out tomato and pat it down really well so there's a nice dell for the egg to rest in.

5. Crack on egg on top of each tomato, pop it on a pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the egg is set.

Check it frequently! See why below:

also very pixelated! eek. sorry.

I've actually made this more than once, and the second time (uh, the time I was taking pictures for this blog) the egg got kinda messed up. There was a slit in the tomato, and the eggs leaked down onto the pan, and the yolk got kind of overdone. I probably should have checked it more frequently than I did, in order to prevent this from happening. So, as you can see here, the finished product picture here is a little, um, weird looking. It still tastes good, though! And it tastes especially good when you don't have this mishap, so I hope you don't.

Other things to know: my main adaptation from the magazine recipe was to include the tomato guts in the stuffing; I just think it makes it juicier and more flavorful. Also, you'll definitely want to let this cool before you eat it, as it's extremely hot when it comes out of the oven.

If you make this, let me know how it goes. Maybe there is some kind of egg/oven trick I didn't do correctly the second time?