This easy, tasty and beautiful recipe for Tomatoes Provencal is one of my favorite things to serve during the winter when I’m really missing good, fresh tomatoes. The recipe is French in nature, hence the “provencal,” and absolutely delicious. It’s a great accompaniment for almost any protein – chicken, fish, beef, you name it and this goes with it. I was inspired to make this recipe after meeting Chef Jacques Pépin in person last weekend. Yes, in person!
BeeBop and I were in Amelia Island, Florida, for a book festival where he was one of the authors chosen to participate. Chef Pépin was there with his beautiful granddaughter, Shorey, to do a short book signing for the crowd. I was lucky enough to get to sit with them and talk for a few minutes! Shorey is a beautiful, articulate, poised young lady and Chef Pépin was so very gracious and down to earth. He has a way of making you feel comfortable immediately – almost like you’d just had a conversation earlier and were continuing to talk. He signed three books for me (Shorey also signed one!) and pointed out things in each that he thought might be of interest. It was an honor and a pleasure to meet them both.
But, getting back to the recipe at hand, this is a standard in French kitchens. Of course, in France, they’d only use fresh summer tomatoes, but I enjoy it even in winter when the tomatoes are not as flavorful. Those winter tomatoes seem to benefit from the cooking time and the herbed bread crumb mixture along with the olive oil certainly helps, too. I hope you enjoy this one!
Tomatoes Provencal - tomatoes baked with an herbed bread crumb topping. Click To Tweet
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the tomatoes in half around the middle and place cut side up in a baking dish. Salt and pepper each tomato half.
In a food processor, add the bread, parsley and garlic. Process until you have coarse bread crumbs. I usually have a few slices of bread stored in my freezer. I especially like the end pieces for making bread crumbs. I toss them right in the food processer straight from the freezer, but you can defrost for a few seconds in the microwave if you want. Also, I didn’t have any fresh parsley on hand, so I threw in a tablespoon of dried. Just as good.
Divide the bread crumb mixture evenly over the tomatoes.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden brown on top and the tomatoes have softened.
Enjoy!
Tomatoes Provencal
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 slices day-old bread
- 1 tblsp. chopped parsley
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 tsp. olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut the tomatoes in half around the middle and place cut side up in a baking dish. Salt and pepper each tomato half.
- In a food processor, add the bread, parsley and garlic. Process until you have coarse bread crumbs.
- Divide the bread crumb mixture evenly over the tomatoes.
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden brown on top and the tomatoes have softened.
Notes
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More roasted tomato recipes you might enjoy:
- Parmesan Roasted Tomatoes from Rasa Malaysia
- Oven-Roasted Tomatoes from David Lebovitz
- Garlic Roasted Cherry Tomatoes from The Novice Chef
- Perfectly Roasted Tomatoes with Ricotta and Mint from Inspired Taste
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