Meatless Monday: Slow Roasted Tomatoes

This is a NON recipe for one of the most delicious foods on earth! I first discovered slow roasted tomatoes from Orangette and then Gwyneth put a recipe for them in her book which I also made (they were excellent as is her book, don’t hate.)  Basically you take any small sized tomatoes, cut them and half, add salt and EVOO and let them sizzle and shrivel in a low oven for 2-5 hours. Even the crappiest tomatoes condense as they roast into the richest, tangiest, sweetest flavor on earth. Make these and eat like an Etruscan King. Drew calls them “Umami discs.”

 

I’ll walk you through the process. Buy some tomatoes, I got these at the Farmer’s Market but I’ve also done this recipe with (gasp) grocery store, out of season, non-organic cherry tomatoes and it was just as yummy. Wash them and take the tops off. Cut them in half.

 

 

Toss the tomato halves with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Lay cut side up on a baking sheet (I line mine with these parchment paper sheets, best product ever.)

 

See how much salt I use, this gives the tomatoes lots of flavor. Now put them in a 250 degree oven for 2-5 hours depending on the size. These Roma halves took 3.5 hours.

 

Roast them til they look like this picture. Shriveled but not burnt or crisp.

 

Aren’t they pretty! Let them cool and store them in your fridge in an airtight container drizzled with olive oil for up to a week. Toss them with pasta, puree them into soups or hummus, add them to sauteed lentils, each them on steak sandwiches or with fresh mozzarella. Eat them off the baking sheet for all I care, just make these.

 

xo,

LEH