You hollow tomatoes and peppers, stuff them with herbed rice, and bake them in a pool of oil until they slump. The rice is sweet with onion and mint; the vegetables collapse into themselves. The potatoes that roast alongside are not optional — they are the prize at the bottom of the dish, having drunk every drop.
Gemista is summer cooking, ladera, the oil-based kitchen of hot weather. Every garden with tomatoes makes it. The filling is rice, onion, parsley, mint. Meat is a mainland variation, not a requirement.
Stuff them only three-quarters full — the rice will swell. Bake at 350°F until they collapse. Serve warm or at room temperature, which is how you eat them in August. Bread for the juices.
Method
- 01
Slice the tops off the tomatoes and the peppers and keep those tops as lids — you'll put them back on, like little hats. Scoop out the tomato pulp with a spoon and chop it; that pulp goes into the filling, so don't throw it away. Seed the peppers and discard the seeds and membranes. You should now have eight hollow vegetables and a pile of chopped tomato, ready for the rice.
- 02
Cook the onions in 4 tablespoons of the oil until they are soft and sweet. Stir in the rice, the chopped tomato pulp, the parsley, the mint, the sugar, salt, and pepper, and cook just 3 minutes. The rice should still be raw — it will swell in the oven, and if you cook it now the filling will burst the vegetables. Taste the mixture; it should be herby and a little sweet, then cool it slightly before you stuff.
- 03
Stuff the tomatoes and peppers three-quarters full — the rice will swell, and a packed vegetable will split. Replace the lids, then nestle them in a baking dish and tuck the potato wedges into the gaps; those potatoes are not optional, they are the prize at the bottom of the dish, having drunk every drop of oil and juice. Pour over the remaining oil and a splash of water. It should look abundant.
- 04
Cover the dish with foil and bake at 350°F for 50 minutes, so the rice steams and the vegetables begin to slump. Then uncover and bake 30 to 40 minutes more, until the rice is tender, the tomatoes and peppers have collapsed into themselves, and the potatoes are bronzed at the edges. The kitchen will smell of mint and sweet tomato. If the rice still has a chalky bite, give it another 10 minutes.
- 05
Serve them warm or at room temperature, which is how they are eaten in August, the oil still bright on the plate. Don't rush them to the table piping hot; they want a rest, and the flavors settle as they cool. Bread for the juices is not optional. The potatoes at the bottom, bronzed and oil-soaked, are the bite everyone reaches for first.
