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Local Food Journey

Slow-roasted tomatoes are a revelation of flavor

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 09/20 at 08:02 AM

Photo via Creative Commons courtesy of Flickr user grongar

Even this late in the season, you probably still have tomatoes in your garden, and if you’re not a gardener, probably still see good-looking tomatoes at farmers markets. If you are a serious tomato-lover, you’ve turned them into sauce, whipped up some salsa, canned them, frozen them, made some sort of pasta, made tomato salad, etc. You may think, like I did, that you’ve tried just about every use for those wonderful globes of deliciousness. But, I can recommend one way to use tomatoes that is positively amazing and yes, a revelation of flavor—slow-roasting them.

When done, slow-roasted tomatoes look sort of nasty, like the sun-dried tomato’s ugly cousin. However, they more than make up for it with an intense tomato flavor that’s not unlike sun-dried tomatoes, minus the tough consistency. These tomatoes can be served as an appetizer with some sliced baguettes and romano cheese, run through a food processor to make an incredible sauce, or snacked on by their delicious selves.

Slow-roasting is also incredibly easy and only takes a few steps:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 275

Step 2: Take tomatoes, remove tops, and if they are plum or equivalent, slice in half LONGWAYS (as in, not across the tomato’s equator). If they are beefsteaks, slice roughly 1/2” thick (in this case, across their equator).

Step 3: Cover a cookie sheet with foil, then grease it with olive oil. Spraying it is a good way to do this. Then place tomatoes on a single layer, then spray tomatoes with olive oil (if you don’t want to use supermarket canned spray oil, you can purchase an oil sprayer at any kitchen store).

Step 4: Season how you like it. If you are freezing for later recipes, I recommend just sprinkling with sea salt. If you are serving immediately, coarsely chopped garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and sea salt are nice toppings. Really, slow-roasted tomatoes can stand on their own and don’t need any help.

Step 5: Roast for about two hours, then remove from oven. Serve immediately, refrigerate for up to three days, or freeze for later use.

Seriously…give this a try. They are quite tasty.