Oven Roasted Tomatoes

If you’ve never made slow-roasted tomatoes before, prepare to have your mind blown because they’ve got very little to do with the aforementioned packaged variety in all of the best ways: they’re so flavorful that you might think you think someone snuck into your oven and doused them in both vinegar and salt, even if you did neither. They also have just the right level of moisture, dry on the outside with some juiciness left within–no rehydrating needed here. They can transform even those freakily perfect supermarket grape tomatoes into heaven on a plate, but if you manage to get your hands on the real deal from a greenmarket, well, I hope you’re sitting down when you pop the first one in your mouth.

And what to do with them? Namely, anything. Dorie Greenspan uses hers as a pasta picker-upper, or stores them in the fridge covered in olive oil, laying them over chicken, salmon, tuna or mixed vegetables. Heidi at 101 Cookbooks puts them in salsa. And I put them… in my mouth. Or mix them with white beans or slivers of basil. Or in my mouth. Or in salad. But mostly in my mouth.



Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Cherry, grape or small Roma tomatoes
Whole gloves of garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Herbs such as thyme or rosemary (optional)

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry or grape tomato crosswise, or Roma tomato lengthwise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle herbs on, if you are using them, and salt and pepper, though go easily on these because the finished product will be so flavorful you’ll need very little to help it along.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.
Either use them right away or let them cool, cover them with some extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge for the best summer condiment, ever. And for snacking