Tuna Tomato Salad in a Tomato

This salad was inspired by a comment on a thread in the Chow.com regarding lunchtime salads with protein. I basically took a recipe for a tomato and crusty bread salad and added tuna as the filling. These tomatoes were a brilliant find at 17th Street Market here in Tucson. They were less than a dollar a pound and big and perfect for little individual salad shells.

These pictures are an excellent reminder that I need to start using a light!

Tuna Tomato Salad in a Tomato

3 big tomatoes, halved
1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced
a cup or so of cubed crusty bread
a few basil leaves chopped
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package tuna
salt and pepper to taste

Scoop the flesh out of the tomato, reserving the pulp and the halves and discarding the tomato water. Season the halves with salt and pepper.

Chop the reserved pulp and stir in the rest of the ingredients creating the filling.

Split the filling between the six halves, sprinkle on some grating cheese, a drizzle of olive oil or perhaps an additional grind of pepper if you like and serve. If your bread cubes are particularly crusty they might benefit from a short resting time to soak up the tomato juices

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