Cherry tomatoes can be eaten like candy, slipped into salads, slid onto skewers or added to sautés. But I like most to use them as eye-pleasing vessels for a variety of stuffings and serve them with drinks or as a garnish for a simple dish like roasted or pan-fried fish.

The best cherry tomatoes for this purpose are the ones that come on the vine: you can slice off their stem ends so that the little tops of your hors d’oeuvres have built-in green handles. Otherwise, you can just leave the top open to show off whatever you decide to stuff them with. (These are also nice for a picnic — just use toothpicks to keep the stuffed cherry tomatoes in place while they’re in transit.)

I like to scoop out cherry tomatoes’ pulp with a tea spoon and stuff them with herbed goat cheese, crab salad or baba ghanoush. But you can let your imagination run wild here. Stuff them with leftover rice salad, guacamole, tapenade, tarama, hummus, a big, crisp, garlicky crouton or a basil leaf and a morsel of mozzarella.

Tomorrow, I’m headed to a lunchtime picnic, and I’d like to try something new. Any other ideas for a stuffing come immediately to mind?

Posted by kristin in ingredients | | Subscribe to this feed