Meat Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe

4.72 from 14 votes

This is a French recipe known as tomate farcie. It's the perfect wholesome family dinner meal!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: French

Servings: stuffed tomatoes

Calories: 204kcal

Prepare the meat filling first. Keep the stale bread to soak in the milk so that it gets soft.
1.7 Ounces Stale Bread, ⅓ Cup Milk
Then combine all the meat filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl, including the meat, soaked bread, seasoning, oil, onion, garlic. Work it with your fingers. Leave to rest until further use.
14 Ounces Ground Meat, 1 Teaspoon Oregano Dried, 1 Teaspoon Thyme Dried, 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil, 1 Onion, 2 Cloves Garlic Cloves, ½ Cup Parsley Fresh, 1 Teaspoon Salt, ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground

Now to hollow out your tomatoes, cut out the tomato base so that you have a large enough opening. Cut out the tomato fruit flesh and place the fruit flesh into the casserole dish, which you will use to oven roast your filled tomatoes so that it will be part of the sauce (we don't waste).
8 Tomato
Place your hollowed-out tomatoes in a row into the casserole dish and stuff with the meat stuffing. Close the stuffing with the cut-off tomato end to create a tomato hat.

Preheat your oven to 400° Fahrenheit/ 200° Celsius.
Add the sauce ingredients into the casserole dish around the tomatoes with meat stuffing, including the tomato sauce, water, seasoning, herbs, bay leaf. Mix the sauce ingredients a bit so that they get combined.
1 Onion, ⅓ Cup Tomato Sauce, ⅓ Cup Water, ⅓ Cup Fresh Herbs, 2 Small Bay Leaves
Drizzle your meat-stuffed tomatoes with olive oil.
Olive Oil
Bake at 400° Fahrenheit/ 200° Celsius for about 30 minutes, or until the meat is cooked.

You can use lean or 80:20 ratio fatty meat, beef, or pork or both. It's up to you. I recommend using 80:20 fatty meat and a mixture of ground beef and pork meat if you want juicy, flavor balanced meat stuffed tomatoes. See post for detailed info.
For the sauce, you can use fresh or dried mixture of herbs. I like to use fresh herbs whenever possible. Use a combination of chopped thyme, savory, and rosemary (as seen in the post picture). If you use dried herbs, reduce the quantity to add a combination of about 1 ½ Tablespoons of dried herbs, such as thyme, savory, or rosemary. You may skip one herb if you can't get it. The perfect flavor combo is thyme, savory, and rosemary.