Tomatoes, peppers and aubergines hollowed and stuffed with rice flavoured with herbs, pine nuts, raisins and tomato pulp, baked until the vegetables collapse and the rice absorbs the juice. The Thessaloniki summer table.

Gemista (the stuffed ones) belong to the Ottoman-rooted family of dolmades that runs across the Eastern Mediterranean. The Thessaloniki version leans heavily on Macedonian summer produce and is traditionally lathera, cooked in olive oil with no meat, eaten through the Lenten fasts and the August heat.

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Make it at home

Serves 62 hrEasy

Ingredients

  • 6 large ripe beefsteak tomatoes
  • 4 large bell peppers (red and yellow)
  • 2 medium aubergines
  • 300g Carolina long-grain rice, rinsed
  • 150ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to drizzle
  • 2 large onions, finely diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 60g pine nuts
  • 60g raisins
  • 1 large bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 small bunch fresh mint, chopped
  • 1 small bunch fresh dill, chopped
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp caster sugar
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 600g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 200ml hot water

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C. Slice the tops off the tomatoes and peppers, keeping them as lids. Scoop out the tomato flesh into a bowl; deseed the peppers. Halve the aubergines lengthways and scoop out flesh leaving a 1cm shell.
  2. Chop the tomato and aubergine flesh and reserve. Sprinkle the inside of each vegetable shell with salt and sugar; arrange shells upright in a baking dish.
  3. Heat 4 tbsp olive oil in a deep pan. Cook the onion gently for 8 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute.
  4. Stir in the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and aubergine flesh, the pine nuts and raisins. Simmer 8 minutes.
  5. Add the rice, half the parsley, the mint, dill, oregano, 1 tsp salt and a generous grind of pepper. Stir for 2 minutes; the rice should be coated and just warmed.
  6. Spoon the filling into each vegetable shell, leaving 1cm at the top (the rice swells). Replace the lids.
  7. Tuck the potato wedges around and between the vegetables. Drizzle generously with the remaining olive oil and pour the hot water into the base of the dish.
  8. Cover with foil and bake 60 minutes. Uncover, bake another 25 to 30 minutes until vegetables are blistered and the rice is tender.
  9. Scatter with remaining parsley. Eat warm or room temperature; gemista is better the next day.

Editor tip. Use ripe summer tomatoes; supermarket plums lack juice to cook the rice. The potatoes around the base absorb the liquor and are half the dish.