Peppers and tomatoes hollowed out, filled with herby rice and baked with potato wedges wedged between them.
Prep
35 mins
Cook
1h 20m
Servings
4
Per serving
£1.80
Difficulty
medium
Gemista is a genuinely brilliant piece of cooking - the scooped-out tomato flesh becomes the sauce that cooks the rice, so nothing is wasted. It takes a while in the oven but the actual work is twenty minutes, and it is just as good cold the next day.
Slice the tops off the tomatoes and peppers and keep them as lids. Scoop the flesh and seeds out of the tomatoes into a bowl, leaving the shells intact, and pull the cores and seeds out of the peppers.
Blitz or chop the tomato flesh to a rough pulp. Sprinkle a pinch of the sugar and a little salt inside each tomato shell.
Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a pan and cook the onion with 1 tsp salt for 10 minutes. Add the garlic for a minute, then the rice, stirring for 2 minutes to coat.
Stir in the tomato puree, two thirds of the tomato pulp, the remaining sugar, all the herbs, the rest of the salt and the pepper. Cook for 4 minutes, then take off the heat. The rice will still be very underdone - that is correct.
Fill the shells only two thirds full. The rice swells a lot and will burst the vegetables if you pack them.
Heat the oven to 180C fan. Stand the shells in a deep roasting tin, spoon in the filling, and put the lids back on.
Toss the potato wedges with the remaining oil and a little salt and wedge them into the gaps between the vegetables. Pour the stock and remaining tomato pulp into the base of the tin.
Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes, then uncover and bake for a further 25-30 minutes until the rice is tender, the tops are blistered and the potatoes are golden.
Rest for at least 15 minutes before serving - gemista is meant to be warm, not hot.