Have I ever told you, how much I love Greek food? Oh, the whole Mediterranean spread, actually? Looking at my blog now, I am astounded as to how and why I haven’t devoted most, if not all of it, to the pursuit of cooking and indulging in that divine cuisine; that’s how much I love it.

Be it the striking combinations of warm vegetables and greens with sharp, salty cheeses; the tart zing to most dishes; there’s something fascinating to the say the least, about the best of Greek cuisine.

Last year, S and I had the opportunity to sample the cuisine at its home; and it was every bit fantastic as we’d expected. Here’s a (brief, very brief) account of the some of the goodies we had then.

As a vegetarian, I had some difficulty finding suitable main courses sometimes, but as I’ve mentioned before, there is no dearth of appetizers and first courses, called Mezedes, a selection of which would make more than a full meal. One of these gems was Gemista; something I think I must have had everyday. I thought Spanakopita , Dolmades and Tzatziki were heavenly enough samples of Greek cuisine, but along came this marvelous dish and blew me away.

Simply put, Gemista (pronounced Yay-mistah) refers to tomatoes (and/or bell peppers) stuffed with rice and sometimes, meat, seasoned with herbs, garlic and olive oil. (We also came across stuffed seafood Gemista at some points.) It is simplicity itself, but for the longest time, despite strong cravings, I desisted from making it myself, because of my (rather frequently) aforementioned fear of things stuffed and all.

However, I had a rare burst of daredevil energy and just went for it. And as countless other times I’ve taken that risk, it was well worth it: soft & warm cups of tomatoes, bursting with flavor and a hint of crisp tartness here and there. It felt so good, with its rich olive oil and herbal base, that I barely remembered the time it took to prep them, cook the rice, and fill them up before setting them to bake.

In Greece, they were served with a little potato on the side; cooked & tossed with olive oil, salt & some sort of pepper-I used a Spanish Paprika-, which made it a full meal.

Without further ado, here’s a pictorial to the process:

First I sliced the heads off of 4 tomatoes and 1 beautifully mauve bell pepper and scored out their insides:

Then, cooked the rice (oops! forgot to take a picture in the flurry!) and the potatoes:

After which, I stuffed the tomatoes and the pepper with the rice, sprinkled some Kefalograviera (a salty hard sheep’s milk cheese) on top, and prepped them on a baking dish by drizzling some olive oil over & around them, and laid the potatoes around.

And capped them off before setting them to bake for about 15-20 min. at 350°.

They turned out warm, crisp on top, and yet juicy & succulent on the insides:

Served with a glass of a chilled Sauvignon-Blanc, it was a fantastic weekend meal.

Here’s the recipe.