Stuffed Red Cherry Tomatoes

Stuffed tomatoes are a standard classic French pre-takeaway takeaway and interestingly are slow rather than fast food. Every traiteur and charcuterie has them in season as a ready-made dish to take home and warm up or to be heated up in the shop and eaten as a picnic. Most butchers' shops in France offer a daily, cooked hot dish and stuffed tomatoes à la bonne femme is a a seasonal favourite. I've always thought how interesting it is that many countries, France is just one, maintain this old tradition and link with the past, when people didn't necessarily have ovens in their homes or alternatively wanted a ready-cooked meal without going to a restaurant.

Here I'm using cherry tomatoes and these make great hot savouries in a bite sized edition so I guess they should be called 'bon enfant'...maybe.

Cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow in a small space in a container or hanging basket. If you have a greenhouse or a window sill you can keep them producing right up to the first frosts. Tomatoes are perennials, so with care you can keep the plants from year to year.

All my ingredients are organic

(makes 16)

16 cherry tomatoes

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 chipolata or Merguez (Maghrebi sausage) or equivalent in sausage meat

½ teaspoon herbes de Provence

Butter, coconut or your chosen oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C

Rinse and dry the tomatoes.

Slice off the top of each to make a lid and set these to one side.

Using a teaspoon, carefully remove the inside of each tomato,

Place the tomato shells onto a buttered heat-proof dish.

Sauté the red onion until it begins to soften. Add the chopped interior of the tomato and let this simmer briskly until it loses most of its liquid.

Split the skins of the sausage and add the meat to the pan and cook these until the sausage meat has browned and the sauce has thickened.

Add the herbs and mix well.

Using a teaspoon stuff each tomato with the filling.

Put a 'lid' onto each tomato.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cherry tomatoes are cooked.

Allow them to cool slightly if you are taking them straight to the table. Tomatoes hold their heat too well!

Enjoy!