Stuffed Tomatoes--Yemista

You say tomatoes I say tomaaatoes; you say slice them, I say dice them.  Yannis and I actually argue alot about food, He comes from quite a great bunch of traditional cooks and has very set ways of doing things, whereas I dream up alot of our meals.  Of all the ways one can prepare tomatoes, stuffing them the traditional Greek way is something we both agree on!  Of course, we argued about how much garlic goes in this recipe; I would've added much more--like 4 or 5 cloves.  Yannis would stuff some of the mixture into green peppers as well. He would also add raisins to the recipe if it was without meat; something I wouldn't even dream of!  Thank God we both agree to compromise and have come up with a really tasty dinner!  So, no matter how you say tomato, we say "stuff  it!!"

You say "Storm Trooper", I say "Storm Super"!!

Stuffed Tomatoes

12 large tomatoes
sugar
1 lb. ground beef
2 Tbsp. bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves
3 onions, grated
1 cup grated zucchini, umpeeled
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup fresh dill
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 cup rice
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 cup white wine

DELISH-balls

Cut tops off tomatoes and reserve. Scoop out pulp and reserve. Place tomato shells in a baking dish; sprinkle lightly with sugar and then bread crumbs.  In a skillet, lightly saute onions, garlic and beef; add grated zucchini, rice, pine nuts, 1 cup of the tomatoe pulp and 1/2 cup white wine, salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes.  Spoon the mixture into tomato shells and cap tomatoes with their tops.  Combine remaining tomato pulp with one cup water, 6 Tbsp olive oil and 1/2 cup white wine--pour mixture over tomatoes.  You can nessle 3-4 cleaned and quartered potatoes between the tomatoes if you like.  Sprinkle the whole pan with salt and pepper and bake at 350F/180C for 45 minutes, basting occasionally. Spoon sauce over tomatoes and serve with feta, kaseri or saganaki cheese, olives, cucumbers, bread and a dry white wine.....it's about as good as it gets!!