Duped: Tomatoes Provencal
9 Sep
Parsley is really hard to find in Chinatown! It’s so hard to find the stuff that by the time you finally do find it, you may not even realize that it’s actually cilantro. Until you get it home. So, watch out for that.
With cilantro instead of parsley, Jacques Pepin’s recipe for Tomatos Provençal was a little less provençal, but it still tasted good: you fry some cored, halved tomatoes in a hot sautee pan, cut side down, with olive oil, just until they’re softening and starting to brown, at which point you remove them to a gratin dish. Then, you add some olive oil and a persillade (chopped parsley and garlic) to their pan drippings, cook it for a few seconds, and use this mixture to top the tomatoes. Bake them in the gratin pan for a few minutes, and it’s done.
These are really, really good. It’d be hard to overcook this, but it’s pretty much good to go after only 5 or so minutes in the oven. Pepin says he cuts up the leftovers and adds them to tomato sauce, because he is a genius.
