Pomodori ripieni di riso
Roman-style tomatoes stuffed with rice
Thursday, August 15th, was Ferragosto, the holiday marking the height of summer when Italians escape the city, go to the beach or the mountains, and enjoy a few weeks of vacation.
Here in the US, it was a regular workday. But still, we celebrated Ferragosto in our small way by making pomodori ripieni di riso, tomatoes stuffed with rice for dinner.
When Stefano was young, he spent summers with his family at their house in the southern Lazio countryside near the Tyrrhenian Sea. His father, Andrea, planted up to 200 tomato plants in their garden, so there were tomatoes all summer long. They sliced them and ate them with salt, pepper, olive oil, and basil; made simple tomato sauces; and often, stuffed them with rice and baked them. At the end of the season, they pressed them and bottled enough sauce to last all year.
When Stefano was a child in the 1970s and early 1980s, Ferragosto was spent with aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends at the beach. With umbrellas, tables, chairs, and beach bags filled with food, plates, forks, and everything else needed for a feast at the beach, they set up camp and settled in for the day. Pomodori ripieni di riso were always among the food Stefano’s mom, Maria, packed.
Fast-forward several decades, and times have changed. We have only a few tomato plants in our little city garden. We usually wait until fall to vacation in Italy, when the crowds have thinned out and the weather is cooler. When we go to the beach, we rent lounge chairs and beach umbrellas and dine at the beach club’s restaurant.
But we still make pomodori ripieni di riso in the summertime, Roman-style, like Stefano’s mom, Maria, did, the flavors evoking memories and transporting us back in time.
