No. 2836

Tomatoes a la Trevise

Tomates a la Trevise

Cut twelve medium, sound tomatoes across in two through their thickest part; extract all the liquid and lay them one beside the other on a buttered baking tin. Have a pint of good white wine mirepoix stock (No. 419), into which pour four tablespoonfuls of tomato puree (No. 730) and sufficient bread-crumbs to thicken, adding salt, pepper, a quarter of a pound of finely chopped ham and chopped parsley. Fill the halved tomatoes with this preparation, dredge bread-crumbs and grated parmesan over, pour on some oil and let brown nicely in a hot oven; dress them on top of a buttered thickened half-glaze sauce (No. 413), mixing into it more butter and lemon juice.

← No. 2835 Tomatoes, Provencal Style-Stuffed Tomatoes, Corn & Garden Vegetables No. 2837 Tomatoes Baked →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade: three of the components here are cross-references to other numbered recipes. Once you decide what to put in their place, the dish itself is straightforward stuffed tomatoes.

The cross-referencesNo. 419 is Ranhofer's white-wine mirepoix stock, No. 730 his tomato purée (a cooked purée, not a sweetened bottled sauce), and No. 413 the half-glaze, i.e. a reduced brown sauce, for which good store-bought demi-glace or a heavily reduced brown stock will serve. Check the numbered recipes themselves for the exact compositions.
Drain the tomatoes properly"Extract all the liquid" is the hinge. Scoop out seeds and pulp, salt the cut halves lightly and let them sit inverted on a rack for 20-30 minutes. Skip this and the stuffing loosens and the tin fills with liquid that steams rather than browns the crumbs.
OvenThe recipe says only 'a hot oven' and the book gives no temperature; somewhere around 425-450F will colour the crumb and parmesan crust in 15-20 minutes, about as long as a halved tomato will hold its shape.
Breadcrumbs "sufficient to thicken"Genuinely open-ended, and it depends on how dry your crumbs are. Add them to the hot stock gradually until the mixture mounds on a spoon and holds a shape — stiffer than a sauce, looser than a bread stuffing. Roughly a cup of dry crumbs to a pint of liquid is a reasonable starting point.
The hamA quarter pound of chopped ham is best read as cooked, unsmoked or lightly smoked boiled ham. Prosciutto or a heavily smoked supermarket ham will overwhelm the pint of stock; if that is what you have, cut the quantity.
"Pour on some oil"'Pour on some oil' -- a light drizzle of olive oil over the crumbed tops, enough to help the crumbs colour; the recipe also works further butter into the finishing sauce.
Finishing the sauceWhisk cold butter and lemon juice into the warm demi-glace off the heat and do not let it boil afterwards, or it will break. Spoon it onto the plate and set the tomatoes on it, as written — sauce poured over would soften the crust.
YieldTwelve tomatoes give twenty-four halves: a vegetable course for twelve, or a main for six with the sauce and some bread.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organised like a kitchen reference rather than a cookbook — hence the numbered cross-references that make a single dish depend on three others. The name is the sort of French garnish-label the period produced in quantity: à la Trévise is generally traced either to Treviso in the Veneto or to the Napoleonic dukedom of Trévise, and Ranhofer does not explain which. What is clear is the treatment — ham, parmesan and tomato purée bound with crumbs, gratinéed and set on a buttered demi-glace — which reads as the standard French kitchen's Italian accent. It sits in a long run of tomato recipes: Provençal stuffed tomatoes immediately before it, baked tomatoes immediately after.