When you’ve got lots and lots of tomatoes in the garden and you’re looking for new ways to cook ’em, here comes a slow roasted tomato recipe to the rescue.
Making tomato sauce is certainly a great way to use up extra tomatoes. But I’ve recently become a fan of baking batches of these slow roasted tomatoes with garlic to freeze and enjoy in the months to come instead. Slow roasted tomatoes are extremely easy to make; they are also really delicious.
The wonderful thing about this technique is that it intensely concentrates the tomatoes’ flavor. You can feel free to use homegrown tomatoes or the best store-bought heirlooms tomatoes you can find, but don’t feel you have to- the end result will be great even without the best tomatoes.
To make them, first you preheat oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes and garlic in a large roasting pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes and garlic and then sprinkle with the herbs. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven. Carefully lift the skins off the tomatoes and discard (you don’t have to take the skins off the smaller tomatoes). Carefully pour the juices from the bottom of the pan into a bowl.
Reduce the oven temperature to 250°F and return the tomatoes to the oven. Once every hour, remove the roasting tomatoes and pour off the liquid that will continue to accumulate in the bottom of the pan (this makes a lovely broth on its own, or reserve it to use as part of the liquid in a soup, dressing, etc.)
Bake for 3-4 hours, until the tomatoes are well cooked but not too shriveled.
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Slow roasted tomatoes will keep for about 1 week in the refrigerator. They are wonderful on pasta or rice or as a side dish with fish or meat. If you want to save them to enjoy when tomato season is over, you can freeze them for up to 6 months.
Recipe for Slow Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
- *10 large ripe tomatoes stemmed, cored, and cut in half (I actually used a variety of tomatoes- some red and yellow ones of various sizes, plus some San Marzanos and about 4 cups of cherry tomatoes, all from my garden)
- *peeled garlic cloves from 1 large head
- *1/4 cup olive oil
- *2 Tb. fresh basil chopped
- *1 Tb. fresh rosemary leaves removed from the stem
- *1 Tb. fresh parsley chopped
- *Coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes and garlic in a large roasting pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes and garlic and then sprinkle with the herbs. Bake for 30 minutes.
- 2. Remove the pan from the oven. Carefully lift the skins off the tomatoes and discard (you don't have to take the skins off the smaller tomatoes). Carefully pour the juices from the bottom of the pan into a bowl.
- 3. Reduce the oven temperature to 250°F and return the tomatoes to the oven. Once every hour, remove the roasting tomatoes and pour off the liquid that will continue to accumulate in the bottom of the pan (this makes a lovely broth on its own, or reserve it to use as part of the liquid in a soup, dressing, etc.)
- 4. Bake for 3-4 hours, until the tomatoes are well cooked but not too shriveled.
- 5. Slow roasted tomatoes will keep for about 1 week in the refrigerator. They are wonderful on pasta or rice or as a side dish with fish or meat. If you want to save them to enjoy when tomato season is over, you can freeze them for up to 6 months.
