Ryan shares this delicious summer dish for all of us to enjoy.

Start out by washing and halving your Roma tomatoes. After halving them, gut out the insides (seeds, etc.) with a spoon. Sprinkle a bit of kosher salt inside each tomato. Discard guts and lay the halved, gutted tomatoes face down on a clean towel. Chop up your herbs and garlic and mix with the Ricotta cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next, fill each tomato half with a nice heap of the Ricotta mixture. In a food processor (or if you don't have a food processor, you can mash in a plastic baggy with a rolling pin) crumble about 15-20 Ritz crackers. Or you can use dried bread crumbs from your favorite kind of bread if you want. Press each ricotta filled tomato half face down into the crackers/crumbs and then place face up on a baking sheet. Drizzle each tomato with a bit of olive oil. Place in 400º oven for 25-30 minutes.

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Hi, guys. It’s P-Dub. In Austin. And because he knew I was nine hours away from my kitchen on the ranch so that I may care for for my newly lactating kid sister and her baby, Pastor Ryan swooped in and saved the day by sending along this delicious summer dish for us all to enjoy. I love it when people save the day! I try to surround myself with those types as much as I can. Thank you, Pastor Ryan, for picking up the slack while I traipse around Austin and eat sushi.

Hey, everyone—it’s Ryan. Our journey toward more good grub begins in the garden today. I’ve been trying to grow some fruits, vegetables, and herbs for the first time this year, and it’s been a blast.

So let’s see…how about some fresh Parsley today? A handful should do.





And some Basil? A handful of that, too.



And we can’t have Roasted Ricotta Romas without the Roma tomatoes…



Not quite ripe yet.

Well…you can’t win ’em all. Truth be told, I’ve been waiting and waiting for our tomatoes to ripen and it just hasn’t happened yet. Looks like storebought will have to do this time.





We’re also going to need some Ricotta cheese, a ginormous clove of garlic, some cracker crumbs (because I’m out of bread crumbs), and of course some salt, pepper, and olive oil.





First things first: We’ll get started by cutting our Roma tomatoes in half lengthwise. How many, you ask? Well, that’s entirely up to you. I’m going to be using eight tomatoes today. This will make 16 halves. Yes, I’m a math whiz. And speaking of numbers – let’s get our oven set to 400°.





Once you’ve got your Romas sliced in half, it’s time to find your favorite tomato-gutting device. Mine happens to be this titanium spork. Don’t laugh. A true sign of manliness is owning a titanium spork. Ask any man and he’ll agree.





Now you’re going to take your titanium spork, or whatever lesser tomato-gutting device you might have, and scoop out the insides of the tomato leaving the external “shell” in tact.









Repeat this process approximately fifteen times until you’ve made an impressive mess.





Sprinkle the inside of each tomato with some salt (kosher is best) and then transfer them, face down, to a clean towel. This will help pull some of the excess moisture out of the tomatoes while we prepare the filling.





Remember our Parsley and Basil? Good…we wouldn’t want to forget them.





It’s time for mincing. Have you ever seen one of these babies? It’s called a double-bladed mincing knife and it serves almost no purpose whatsoever. But it’s fun to use every now and then.





Mince!

Let’s do the same with some garlic. This time I have fresh garlic, but it’s…not quite normal. It’s ginormous. It’s called Elephant Garlic and it’s about 5-10 times the size of a regular clove of garlic. It’s flavor isn’t quite as strong either. Normally I would just use regular garlic for this, but what the heck—you use what you have, right?

How about a size comparison next to one of those Roma tomatoes?



I told you it was huge! If you’re using regular garlic, start off with a few cloves. Use more if you love the stuff.





Here’s everything, all minced up.





At this point it’s time for our Ricotta. Did you know that the word Ricotta means “twice cooked” or “recooked” in Italian? Some cool facts about Ricotta can be found—–> Here.





An easy way to measure out how much Ricotta we’ll need is to simply use one spoonful of Ricotta for each tomato half we have. Here’s a little more than a tablespoon and I’ll repeat this process approximately fifteen times.





Once we’ve got our Ricotta measured out, we’ll hit it with a good dose of freshly ground pepper and a couple of good sized pinches of kosher salt. Ricotta is typically unsalted, so be generous here.





Add in the herbs and garlic and give it a good mix until we have a filling that looks something like this:





Now grab one of those tomatoes and spork your filling into it like so:





Repeat this step approximately fifteen times.







And now for the final touch, we’re going to need a crust on top. I’m out of bread crumbs so I’ve decided to use up a leftover half-sleeve of buttery Ritz crackers. Blend, crush, smash, pulverize these tasty crackers until we’ve got a good breading.









Next, we’re going to plop our Ricotta-filled tomatoes face down into the cracker crumbs for a nice coating.





Repeat this process approximately fifteen times and lay out those ‘maters on a sheet pan.





I like to hit each tomato top with a drizzle of olive oil.

Now, just toss your sheet pan full of stuffed tomatoes into a 400° oven and wait for the smells to arrive. It should take around 25-30 minutes for golden-brown deliciousness to occur.





Mmmm. Check ’em out.





Oooh la la. {Faints} Now toss some more herbs on top for shameless beauty points.





{Faints again}





Well folks…it’s been fun, but I’ve got to go. Someone’s gotta eat all these.

Enjoy!