Yesterday was blustery and rainy. Turning on the oven was a comfort. I thought about all of the ripe heirloom tomatoes that I had sitting in a box on the counter and what could I do with them? I was inspired by the idea of tomato pie, or tart but didn't want the hassle of a crust and blind baking. I then thought, I could do a sformato of cheese and tomatoes, too much fuss, but the idea of cheese and tomatoes hit the right tone. Put it on a savory waffle....YEAH. I have been obsessing over savory waffles for a while, seems like this was the time to see if they can work.
So I made a ricotta tomatoes no crust layered creation.
Ingredients for Cheese-y Tomato-y Thing-y
2-3 lbs of ripe juicy tomatoes
1 large leek, cleaned and cut into quarter rounds
4 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed, and chopped
16 oz ricotta cheese
4 eggs
2 cups shredded cheeses of your choice, plus more for top
6 slices cooked bacon
handful chopped parsley
2 sprigs of thyme leaves
2 T torn or chopped fresh basil
nutmeg
hot pepper flakes
salt and pepper
Method
1. Set oven at 350°. Slice the tomatoes parallel to the top and bottom and place on a plate, or plates, in a single layer, and salt. Let sit for 30 minutes or longer.
2. Saute the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Drain off all but 2 T or so of the bacon fat.
3. In the same skillet heat remaining bacon fat and saute the leek until it starts to soften, add the garlic, salt and pepper as well as hot pepper flakes. Line a bowl with some paper toweling and pour in the sauteed vegetables. Spread out the veggies as much as possible so that most of the residual oil is absorbed.
4. Remove the paper toweling from veggies and add ricotta, eggs, parsley, basil, and nutmeg. Mix well to combine. Add the shredded cheeses of your choice. I used manchego and tarentaise (an alpine type, washed rind cheese) because that is what I had in the fridge.
5. Prepare a baking dish that will hold everything. Spray with cooking spray to make clean up easier. Don't forget the rim of the dish! Blot the tomatoes dry on the side facing up and put a layer of the not so nice looking ones on the bottom dried side down. Blot the side that is now facing up. Add a layer of the vegetable and cheese and half of the crisped bacon crumbled. Add another layer of tomatoes, blotting and then putting that side down and blotting the upward facing side, top with cheese mixture and bacon. Top with the best looking tomatoes, blotted again, and sprinkled the reserved cheese on top.
6. Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and put oiled side down on top of the casserole dish and seal enough to stay put. Put casserole on a sheet pan to catch any overflow and bake for 40 minutes, remove foil and bake until browned and a little crusty on top.
7. Allow to cool so that it firms up. Make the waffles at this point.
Waffles
I used Aunt Jemima's pancake and waffle mix. Doubled the recipe. To make them savory, I topped the batter once in the waffle iron with chopped herbs. I used rosemary, parsley, and thyme.
Bill tried a double waffle, had promise, but was too unwieldy to be recommended.
Would I make this again? Probably not. Why? The tomatoes were excellent on their own, and they lost their essence of summer. Would I tweak it to make it better? Probably not. Why? Because the end result was not worth wasting good tomatoes. However, the waffle was really good. I'd make savory waffles again and again, heck, maybe even sweet ones!
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