Provence style Tomatoes

 Recipe from chef patrick

Ingredients :
Here is the mythical recipe of the tomatoes 'à la Provençale' (Provence style tomatoes - note of the translator : Provence is a famous region of the south of France), source of numerous culinary 'litigations' ; this is a very good one.

Provence style tomatoes for 4 persons :

8 nice round well ripe tomatoes
1/10 liter (3 fl oz) olive oil
3 tablespoonfuls chopped fresh parsley
4 cloves of garlic, degermed, crushed and chopped
3 tablespoonfuls breadcrumbs
6 grams (1/5 oz) table salt blended with 2 grams caster sugar
freshly ground black pepper
2 grams oregano + 2 grams dry sweet marjoram

Direction :
1/Get rid of the scapes of the tomatoes, then cut the tomatoes in 2 halves (horizontaly), take the seeds off, season them with sugar and table salt mix and with black pepper
2/Pour half the olive oil into a large frying pan, heat it and brown the half tomatoes during 3 minutes first on the pulp side then during 2 minutes on the other side
3/Pre-heat the oven at 240°C (464°F)
4/In a salad bowl, blend garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs and dry herbs
5/Put the tomatoes onto a cooking dish (clay, china) and distribute the garlic mixture on each tomatoe, sprinkle some black pepper on them, distribute the remaining olive oil on them and put into the oven for 15 minutes.
Here it is : you have got a marvellous side food to be served with a roasted lamb leg, small kebabs, bake red mullets, fried pan meat etc ...
Guy Gedda, the famous (now retired) 'Provençal' cook considered by all cooks as one of the greatest 'provençal' cooking specialists likes among all to taste those tomatoes with a sunny side up egg topped on them. It is now to you to prepare this simple but great recipe