Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Slow roasted tomatoes have an intense flavor that I like a lot but they are still moist, and very unlike sun-dried tomatoes in that way. It is worth waiting until they are in season and taste good fresh. My personal favorite is dry farmed early girl--possibly dry farmed any variety but the ones available now both at the farmer's market and the grocery happen to be that variety.

I've made this a lot --starting in the 1990s and always with Farmers Market tomatoes-- to mostly rave reviews and I have tossed them in the freezer for winter cooking. So, you would think it not too likely that I would wreck a batch (a dozen, to be exact) but I nearly did.  My recipe is for three large tomatoes and I had a dozen small ones, and I was way too hand-wavey in computing the garlic and herbs component. |It is good to have a lot of juice and olive oil in the bottom for pasta sauce or dipping bread for sandwiches. And |I had just made a batch of vegetable pasta with fresh cherry tomatoes that was sort of flavor deprived. So I mounded on those delicious items, thinking of the tang in the mouth when the mixture hits the tongue and moves slowly through the mouth. But what greeted me out of the oven had all the subtlety of a blaring car horn at a symphony. at firs I was going to toss them out--but I hated to admit I had completely destroyed those flavorful tomatoes. I scraped most of the herb-garlic covering off and saved it in a tupperware holder. It didn't eat its way through the plastic, so it couldn't be too powerful. And when I tok a gingerly, tiny bite on t he edge of a pasta bow the next morning,  only a pleasantly sweet, tangy, herby tomato-y sensation greeted me. Phew!!

Good note to self: Always remember the main reason you are making this dish in the first place. Tomato flavor, you dummy!! let it get richer and keep it juicy in the slow roast process. You'll never mask a bad tomato taste when  you roast it no matter what you add--not ground pearls or chopped truffles or Dom Perignon. A light touch wins, every time.

Focaccia Bruschetta with slow roasted Tomatoes

Serves 4 to 6 people, 2 pieces each

3 large plum or medium slicing tomatoes
sea salt
2 cloves garlic
2 1/2 tbsps good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsps dried oregano leaves, crumbled in your palm.
Plain focaccia or Herb Slab bread
Ricotta salata cheese
l doz basil leaves

preheat oven to 300 degrees. Core tomatoes.  Cut plum tomatoes in half lengthwise, then cut a very thin slice from the bottom so it will not sit crooked in the pan.  Cut slicing tomatoes crosswise.  Arrange them in a baking dish so they are just touching. sprinkle with sea salt. Mix the garlic and oregano with the oil and spoon over tomato tops.  Bake for about 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes or so with pan juices. When the tomatoes are soft and losing their shape but not collapsed, take them out. (|You can stop here and put in freezer or fridge for a few days.|)

To make sandwiches, preheat broiler. Cut herb slab into whatever size you want but slice in half.  Broil bread slices to toast a little on the sliced side.  Cut tomatoes to make 12 pieces. Let the bread soak up some of the juice, then distribute tomato pieces, then grate cheese, then garnish with a basil leaf. REALLY delicious.

Here is another method that takes longer but doesn't need basting, and has no herbs. Use a 200-degree oven and 5 pounds of tomatoes, any type or size |(sez the person that posted the recipe). cut in half, end to end, and put on a rimmed baking sheet, cut side up.  chop 4 cloves garlic and sprinkle over the tomatoes. Season with sea salt and pepper. Drizzle EV olive oil on every tomato. (you will use the oil later). Small tomatoes might cook in 5 or so hours; medium to large 10 to 12. (That must be for huge ones. Medium sized early girls take about 8 or a little longer, usually.) They are done when they collapse more than the above recipe but aren't drying out.