Tomates Farcies au Gratin

Tomates Farcies au Gratin (gratinéed tomatoes filled with mushroom duxelles) teach one clean discipline: the filling must be drier than you think. Tomatoes bring their own water, so a soft duxelles makes the gratin weep and its crumb slump. Cook the mushrooms until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a dry track. That is the one true thing to know before touching the pan.

The original assumed a saucier on staff, veal stock never off the fire, finished half-glaze ready for service, and a salamander waiting to bronze the crumbs. Here, eight medium tomatoes feed four; one skillet makes exactly enough duxelles, a good prepared veal demi-glace replaces the permanent stockpot, and the home broiler supplies that fierce final heat. Gallons of standing sauce were brigade scaffolding and can go. Half-baking the tomatoes, working the filling stiff, and forming the hot gratin are the dish, so all three stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Done properly, the tomatoes remain upright and scarlet, the duxelles tastes deeply of mushroom and butter, and the crumb forms a crisp bronze cap. The clear tomatéd half-glaze belongs around the tomatoes, never over them, where it can gleam without softening the crust. Work the duxelles stiff before you fill a single shell.