Can we take a minute to pause and enjoy this gif??? (<— techy word for this spiffy animation below) Hollaaaa!
Hugs, high fives, male-sport-butt-slaps to Dan the Man for walking me through this one. You don’t want to know how long it took me to make a seven second animation. Longer than it will take you to make this dish!!!
You know what I’m talking about with the male-sport-butt-slaps, right? Exhibit A, B, and C. Look for it from now on when you watch sports. You’ll see it everywhere: football, basketball, baseball… it’s like the low-high-five? I see it mostly when a guy comes back to the bench from playing. He gets pelted with butt-taps like, “hey man, good job <tap>.” Men, maybe you can chime in for us here? I’m not sure what it’s all about. A small part of me kinda likes it.
If you’ve ever grown tomatoes in your garden, you’re familiar with this problem: sooo manyyy tomatoooooes! What to do with all of them?! Your neighbors love you, I’m sure. Maybe your co-workers too, cause you’re a sharer. Can’t let the beauties go to waste! So a GOOD problem, but a too-many-tomatoes-problem none the less. I have the perfect solution for you here, and it’s Heirloom Tomato Bake. You don’t need a surplus of tomatoes to be the only reason to make this dish, however. In fact, you don’t even need to use the heirloom variety: about 2 pounds of any tomato variety (like on-the-vine, beefsteak, or Roma) would work great as well. If your tomatoes are super juicy, you might consider using more bread than is called for to help soak up the juices.
Ya know what’s super nerdy? I love studying for my RD (registered dietitian) exam. I actually like learning all this stuff. I miiiight have gotten lost in studying this morning for five hours straight. Do you think I found my career calling? I don’t know if I’ll be able to say the same thing when I get to some of the areas I’m not so fond of, but for now, boooyah.
I know I’ve been insta-teasing you lately with pictures of my first ever grilled pizza (winner!) and glimpses of a peach crisp (holy winner again!). I promise they’re coming soon, but for now I’m trying really hard to bury my head deep into studying. Oh and apply for that ‘lil thing called a JOB. I found one today that REALLY peaked my interest. It required a cover letter with a specific outline. So I spent far too long on it. But by the end I was convinced I wanted the job BADLY and that I was perfect for it. Maybe that means my cover letter is awesome. I’ll go with that. I’m sure it’s a job a LOT of people want though so I’m not holding my breath. Oh, the game of job applications…
OK! I reserved a small window after dinner to get this up. Now it’s off to wind down for bed before I get up and study s’more!!! Let’s do this. Positive vibes.
- 1½ tablespoons butter (plus more to butter your baking dish)
- 1 cup bread, finely diced (ciabatta, sourdough, rosemary loaf, olive loaf, rye, gluten-free, whatever you like!)
- 2 green bell peppers, finely diced
- ½ yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 large heirloom tomatoes (I like alternating colors!)
- 3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
- parmesan cheese, as desired
- salt and pepper
- ¼ cup basil, thinly sliced
- Preheat your oven to 375 F. Butter a baking dish (my dish was 12¼" x 8¾") and set aside.
- Over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the green pepper and onion. Cook for about five minutes, until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Take off the heat and stir in the bread.
- Place half of the bell pepper mixture evenly across the bottom of the baking dish.
- Sprinkle with half the mozzarella cheese (1½ cups).
- Layer the tomatoes in the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
- Top tomatoes with the remaining half of the bell pepper mixture.
- Top that with the remaining 1½ cups mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle as desired with shredded parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden. When hot out of the oven, sprinkle with basil. Cool at least 10 minutes, then slice (or scoop!) and serve.
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