I make something similar, but it's much more convoluted
The reason it would be pointless to stick a whole tomato in the middle like that is because Modern store bought tomatoes, even red/ ripe LOOKING ones, are Neither ripe nor flavorful.. they're a lie,
So if you use any store bought tomatoes in your recipe, you have to concentrate the tomato flavor through reduction..
For combination rice dishes involving tomato..
I would first derive the minimum required liquids using my rice hydration formula.
THEN I would multiply that by the empirically determined evaporative modifier..
THEN because tomatos are 95% water, I would divide that number by 0.95 TO ARRIVE AT the precise weight of tomatoes which contain enough water to cook my rice to the perfect hydration ratio of 58% water to 42% rice.
--note, you MUST use my hydration formula, Rice contains 12% water when you buy it, it looks dry, but it's not, if it was completely dried before shipping, the rice would crack, leaking starch in the cooking stage.
Then instead of just sticking tomatoes between the rice, I would certainly puree the tomato, and let the rice soak in the tomato juices for at least 1.5 hours.
This way, all in one pot, one would achieve perfectly cooked rice, ONTOP of the tomato reduction to boost flavor..
