Cold Stuffed Tomatoes are a 5 minute appetizer that look effortlessly impressive! These no bake stuffed tomatoes can be thrown at the guests as they arrive to free you up and get the party sorted!
Recipes like the Caprese Bruschetta, Caprese Pesto Pasta Salad and Caprese Salad all honor the simple combination of tomatoes, cheese, basil and balsamic.
Both the Burrata Salad and Panzanella Salad delight in fresh tomatoes!
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
Everybody needs a quick no bake 5 minute appetizer up their sleeve!
This recipe is all of the above plus uses simple, easy to find ingredients.
Unique with bright colours and pops of flavour from the basil pesto and balsamic glaze these fuss free cheese stuffed tomatoes can be grabbed with 2 fingers and eaten with 2 bites!
Beautiful on their own, or spruced up with extra pesto and balsamic, this appetizer works as a feature plate for festive occasions all year round!
🍜 Uncooked stuffed tomatoes
By making these no bake stuffed tomatoes, we save time heating up the oven, reduce the recipe time and don't take away from the main event.
Serving them fresh is the perfect way to start as they taste incredible and are light to allow for the eating to come after!
🥗 Ingredients
The ingredients needed for the recipe are simple and can be found at the local shops. The bocconcini will be in the fridge section in a little tub.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Tomatoes: bigger than cherry as the cheese fits better.
- Bocconcini: white cheese balls, 'mozzarella'.
- Basil pesto: store bought from the fridge dip section not pasta section is fine and saves time!!
- Balsamic glaze: thicker than vinegar, will be in a little squeezy bottle.
Now, if you are thinking, 'hey girl, I have seen your 5000 pesto recipes' and want to use one of them, I recommend either the Rocket and Cashew Pesto or Basil and Cashew Pesto.
It is simply a matter of time. Sometimes you have it, sometimes, you don't. You do you and let's get the show on the road!
🍳Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe.
You will need a knife and chopping board to start with. This one can get a little messy at the start!
- use a knife to slice the top of the tomatoes (Photo 1)
- use a spoon to scoop out the seeds of each tomato (Photo 2)
- dollop a little basil pesto at the base of each tomato (Photo 3)
- stuff each tomato with 1 bocconcini ball (Photo 4)
The juice and seeds of the tomatoes will make the initial 2 steps a bit wet and slippery, but I recommend you use a small bowl to gather the seeds as they can be simply discarded.
The tomato needs to be cut in a way that the cheese ball will simply pop in there. This is why I don't recommend using cherry tomatoes for this recipe, as some of them will simply be too small to fit the cheese.
As you can see from the photo above, the cheese fits very snugly into the tomato.
These are in between the size of cherry tomatoes and standard tomatoes.
When making this recipe, I purchase mine from the fruit store or supermarket and they are sometimes called the 'odd bunch'.
And for full disclosure, I use the Woolies ones which use this philosophy:
The Odd Bunch has saved millions of kilos of fruit and vegies from being wasted. It helps farmers sell more of their crop instead of letting perfectly edible fruit and vegies go to waste. It also means our customers enjoy more affordable fresh produce.
Woolworths Australia
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
- This is a quick and easy recipe!
- This is a no bake/cook appetizer
- You can use store bought or homemade pesto
- It takes about 5 mins to bring the recipe together
If parties, entertaining and friends are your thing, you might like to to try my Crudite Platter, Grazing Platter or my Fruit Platter.
💡 Tasty Tips
This is what I have learnt that will help you master the recipe from the 1st time and every following time:
- Use the combo of knife, chopping board and small bowl so that the 'messy bit' is kept to a minimum.
- Cut only the tip of the tomato off, not half of it.
- Use a teaspoon to dollop the basil pesto in.
- At the store when you have the cheese balls in your trolley and are looking for the tomatoes, do a visual check to see that the size of the tomatoes will fit the cheese snugly.
Balsamic vinegar is widely known and used but perhaps the balsamic glaze version slightly less well known.
It is a thick glaze, which is why it is perfect this this recipe as it sticks 'on' the cheese ball.
I don't recommend using the vinegar version as it will 1) slide off 2) make the tomatoes soggy 3) have too punchy a taste, the glaze is more of a knock out!
😍 More Easy Tomato Recipes
If you love using tomatoes when you are cooking, then check out the following recipes for inspiration:
- Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad
- Satisfying Caprese Pesto Pasta Salad
- Caprese Bruschetta
- Burrata Salad
- Healthy Panzanella Salad
Or check out all of them in the salad recipes collection.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Cold Stuffed Tomatoes
Equipment
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Teaspoon
- 1 Small bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups tomatoes Note 1
- 1 cup bocconcini balls Note 2
- ½ cup basil pesto Note 3
- balsamic glaze Note 4
Instructions
- Use a knife and chopping board to slice the top off each tomato
- Use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds and juice of each tomato (then discard) Note 5
- Use a teaspoon to dollop a small amount (¼ teaspoon ish) into the base of each emptied tomato
- Pop a bocconcini ball into each tomato
- Drizzle each stuffed tomato with balsamic glaze (just a touch)
Notes
- Note 1 Go for tomatoes that are in between the size of cherry tomatoes and standard tomatoes to fit the cheese balls in. You will need 12-14 tomatoes, 1 for each bocconcini ball.
- Note 2 I purchase the cheese balls in the tub with the liquid (which gets discarded). The size on the tub is about 250 grams from memory. You will only need 1 tub for the recipe, unless you want to make a double batch.
- Note 3 To make this recipe super quick so that it can be whipped up in 5 minutes, I use store bought basil pesto, the 'dip' type, in the fridge section. If I have homemade pesto in the fridge, I often use that, you can do whichever you have time for!
- Note 4 Balsamic glaze is much thicker than balsamic vinegar, it will be in a small squeezy bottle in the same area of the store as the vinegars. I don't recommend using balsamic vinegar for this recipe as it will make the tomatoes soggy!
- Note 5 If you look at the pictures, you will see that I use a small bowl when I do this. It helps as it contains all the messy stuff and then can be simply discarded.
Marg Smith says
These look so cute. Can't wait to make them.
Adrianne says
Thank-you Marg! I appreciate your feedback.