Mid September to late October is a tomato time in my corner of the world! By local standards this was a really good summer and tomatoes are up, ripe and ready! In my previous blog posts I stated more than once that tomato is my favorite vegetable…I know that botanically is a fruit, but for me, vegetable it is! When it comes to favorite dish I am not picky when it comes to tomatoes: fresh, salad, cooked, sauce, spread, pickled etc., any shape and form! The more concentrated flavor is, the more it becomes intense and richer! Its tangy sweet flavor at the back of the tongue is to die for! How do you concentrate flavour? In this particular dish by long and slow roasting/drying on low temperature.
This is a simple recipe that I just love served as appetizer with goat cheese or even as a simple side for barbecued meat or fried eggs! I mean it is so good I could eat them straight alone with a piece of bread and it would make a wonderful meal!
All that is needed are Roma tomatoes that will be slow roasted on low temperature over several hours. After cooling off they are mixed with olive oil and spices, that is it! They can be either served immediately or fitted in the jar, covered with olive oil, refrigerated and consumed during the week.
The trick is to master how to roast tomatoes by bringing them to the edge of burning, but yet not to let them burn! The critical phase is towards the end of the roasting process so you need to watch them closely! As you will be roasting various tomato sizes with different slice thicknesses make your judgement based on level of dunness that encompasses most of them. It is likely that few thinner ones will be slightly burned, few ticker ones will be still slightly watery but majority of a similar size is what you will be monitoring. Do not be worried because even those few seemingly burned taste delicious! In fact I would rather go for dryer or even slightly burned rather than watery!
The recipe was adopted from “An Italian in my Kitchen” blog.
| Prep Time | 15 min |
| Cook Time | 2-5 hrs |
| Servings |
jar
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- 20-25 Roma tomatoes cut in half, lengthwise
- 4-5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp dry oregano
- 4-5 springs fresh Italian parsley chopped
- 3-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
- 1-2 pinch hot pepper flakes to taste
Ingredients
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- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F), rack in the middle.
- Line large baking pan with parchment paper, drizzle paper with olive oil.
- Arrange halved tomatoes on prepared baking pan, put it on the rack and bake for 20 minutes.
- Lower the heat to 150°C (300°F) and bake for another 2-4.5 hours. Bake tomatoes until they are dried. Note: Bake until the tomatoes thickness is reduced to about 5 mm (1/4"), they have a deep red color and some started to brown on the top. Watch them carefully in latter part of baking, don't let them burn!
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Transfer tomatoes to medium size mixing bowl. Toss together with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, oregano, fresh chopped parsley, chopped basil and hot pepper flakes (if you like it spicy).
- Serve immediately! Alternatively transfer dried tomatoes to a jar with lid, fill and cover completely with olive oil, keep refrigerated. Dried tomatoes should be consumed within a week.
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