Knitwith Homespun

From time to time, I have been known to post about cooking or upload a recipe or two for you all to enjoy.  This time, my daughter, had an idea.  Here are those details.

Today as I was grocery shopping, I thought Isabella might enjoy munching on some grape tomatoes and small boconcini, which are small, dime sized fresh mozzarella balls. I thought I could toss them with some salad dressing and a little basil and she would enjoy this healthy tasty snack after her homework was done. I was wrong! I told her what I had gotten for her to munch on and she said, couldn’t we just bake them Mom? Oh, I guess we could.

So, on Isabella’s recommendation and suggestion, we started on this new recipe that is completely credited to her.

1 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 cup boconcini (small fresh mozzarella balls)
2 large basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

1. Slice tomatoes in half lenthwise. Remove all seeds. This was easily accomplished by sliding your thumb along the flesh and the seeds popped right out.
2. Season the tomatoes as you like with salt and pepper at this point.
3. Roll the basil leaves up and slice them into tiny ribbons.
4. Distribute the basil leaves into the cups of tomatoes.
5. Place a ball of cheese into each tomato.
6. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on each tomato with cheese.
7. Bake at 450 for 7 minutes or until cheese is melted.

As these pictures show, quite a bit of moisture will be released by the tomatoes and can easily be directed away from the tomatoes by putting the tomatoes on a rack before baking. Another incident we experienced was the flexing of our cheap cookie sheet that caused our tiny tomatoes to jump around and toss their cheese onto the tray. It was tragic, but still edible. We had a great time and they were delicious. Enjoy Isabella’s recipe! We sure did. I am the proudest Mom on earth today! Thanks Isabella!