Kick up a pair of roma tomatoes with bleu cheese, garlic and red pepper for an instantly elegant side dish.  

Ingredients:

•  2 fresh roma tomatoes
•  1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese
•  2 cloves of garlic
•  1 tbs fresh chopped parsley
•  1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
•  1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
•  1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a cookie sheet or roll pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking oil.
3. Cut your roma tomatoes in half lengthwise and use a spoon to gut’em of their seeds.
4. Mince the two cloves of garlic.
5. Roughly chop the parsly leaves.
6. Assemble your filling by mixing the crumbled bleu cheese, the minced garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and the chopped parsley saving about 1 tsp of parsley for garnish later.
7. Divide the mixture and spoon equally into your hollowed out roma tomatoes.
8. Pop the tomatoes into the oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is all bubbly and slightly browned on top.
9. Pull them out of the oven, sprinkle with the remaining chopped parsley and serve piping hot.

The recipe serves two: to feed more just double the recipe.

Tips:

• Parsley comes in curly and flat leaf varieties (also known as italian parsley).  Skip the voyage back to 80’s fine dining garnish and get the flat leaf variety if it’s available.
• If you’re sensitive to spice, hold back a bit on the red pepper flakes, or cut them out completely…it’s yours to customize.