Stuffed

Let me apologise for the picture first. I was just getting into the groove, as it were, of food porn when the camera announced it had run out of steam. What was I to do? I could wait three hours for my dinner or I could offer up a less than perfect picture.

I like my food.

Anyway, after a trip to the SuperU where I spent a good deal of money, 55 euros including the cat food but I did get a new rolling pin out of that, I came home determined to make dinner.

These tomatoes, of medium size, not the huge beefsteak sort of later in the season, are stuffed with spinach, kidney beans, raisins, capers, garlic and herbs. I had slightly too much filling because I intended to buy a green pepper and stuff that too but in the supermarket there was a gaggle of old ladies looking intimidating by the display and so I chickened out. The spare filling went in the bottom of the pot and did a good job holding the tomatoes safely while they cooked through in the oven for about 45 minutes. I could give you the recipe but that might be impugning your intelligence. Take the stuff, mix it together, apply to tomatoes. Cook. O.k, you might like to know the spinach was frozen and the filling was therefore gently cooked until thawed and combined in a frying pan before it went into the tomatoes. If you're using fresh spinach (by far the preferable option) then this is also going to be an essential step.

I can't recommend Les Ormes de Cambras Merlot vintage 2007. It's much thinner than the 2006 I learned to love last year but when it's your first glass of wine for a week it still has the necessary kick and at less than 3 euros the bottle, "Santé".