Baked Stuffed Fresh Tomatoes

Perfect for using all of my radiator ray's mortgage lifter tomatoes!

Baked Stuffed Fresh Tomatoes

Serves 5

5 large ripe tomatoes
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
1/3 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped parsley
5 large cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup freshly grated Romano or Asiago or Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Slice off tomatoes tops and carve out the inside of the tomatoes, leaving the shell intact and reserving the tops. Chop the tomato pulp. Drain, reserving the juices separately.
3. Remove the casings from the sausage and crumble the sausage into a skillet. Cook until meat is no longer pink; drain fat.
4. In a bowl, combine the chopped tomato pulp, uncooked rice, basil, parsley, garlic, cheese, cooked crumbled sausage, and add the freshly ground salt and pepper.
5. Oil a 8 x 8-inch baking pan with 1 tablespoons of the oil and place the tomato shells in it, open side up. Stuff each tomato with the tomato mixture and then replace their reserved tops. Pour over the reserved tomato juice and the remaining 1 tablespoons olive oil over the tops.
6. Bake for 60 minutes or until rice is just tender and tomato tops are browned.