I love fresh produce - berries, lettuce, stone fruit, peas, etc., but I think the fruit I love the most is tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes are a fruit - they have seeds! Every year I grow one or two tomato plants to varying degrees of success. This year I chose two varieties of cherry tomatoes - Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes (red) and Sun Gold (yellow/orange). The Sweet 100's are thriving and the Sun Gold are good, but not producing nearly as many.
My favourite way to preserve the freshness and flavour of summer tomatoes is to roast the tiny tomatoes low and slow until they become little flavour bombs. While I can eat those all day long, I usually end up freezing a few jars to keep for winter.
You don't have to grow your own tomatoes to roast - the grocery shops have some fabulous fresh tomatoes that are so juicy, feel free to roast those too! This is what I used to do before I had my small veggie garden.
All you need is a cool night to turn your oven on and...
Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if they are bigger (you want them all about the same size)
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon dried oregano
fresh thyme sprigs (I threw some fresh thyme leaves in here as well, as I had some in the kitchen)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
That's it!
Method
Pre-heat oven to 225 degrees. Place cut cherry tomatoes, garlic, herbs (whole and dried) onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and using hands make sure each tomato is coated. Add salt and pepper to top. Make sure the tomatoes are spread out and not squishing each other on the pan. The more the tomatoes touch, they steam instead of roasting.
Place in pre-heated oven for 3-4 hours or until the outsides are dried and rolling inward and the middle is still jammy.
Let tomatoes cool on sheet pan, then pour the contents of the pan (oil, brown fond and all - the flavour here is amazing!) into sealable glass jars. I take out the garlic and herbs on stems. Discard the herbs, and keep the garlic to use in another dish, like pasta. If you are eating the slow roasted tomatoes in the next 48 hours, seal and place in fridge.
If you are going to freeze the tomatoes to use over the winter, pour olive oil to cover the top of the tomatoes in the glass jar, then seal and place in the freezer. The oil will keep the tomatoes moist and flavourful. Bonus, that oil becomes infused with the tomatoes, herbs and garlic, so make sure to use it in cooking after you've thawed and used the tomatoes!
These tomatoes can be used in almost anything, like Farm Fresh Summer Pasta (here), Caprese Chicken Roll-ups (here), in frittatas, soups, stew bases or even as a chutney in a grilled-cheese sandwich.
My favourite way to use these Slow Roasted Tomatoes, is to eat them straight out of the jar!
Enjoy!
Krista
Comments