The restaurant I worked with, made these amazing slow-roasted tomatoes. I was absolutely smitten with them, and finally tried it myself. Oh my! These are amazing.
I have several books that note a similar recipe. Cooking times vary anywhere from 2-6 hours on a low temperatured oven. Today, I went for about 3 hours and the tomatoes were still quite tender, although shrunken in size and concentrated in flavor.
Somewhere I read that this is the way to bring out good flavors of tomatoes when only poor ones are in season. And using tomatoes at their peak is only better.
At the restaurant, they would have cooked them a couple hours more. For my application (a tart), I decided to leave them tender.
Do try these if you get the chance. They're sublime...
Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
From the Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld
2 pounds plum tomatoes (12-14)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons fresh English thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Cut the tomatoes lengthwise in half and remove the seeds by poking them out with your fingertip. (For presentation purposes, I also like to remove the inside rib). Toss the tomato halves with oil, salt, sugar and thyme in a bowl. Spread them out cut side up on a baking sheet. Bake the tomatoes until they are slightly browned on the edges, the skins have wrinkled and they have the texture of a soft prune, 2-3 hours. The baking time varies greatly depending on the ripeness and juiciness of the tomatoes.
I have several books that note a similar recipe. Cooking times vary anywhere from 2-6 hours on a low temperatured oven. Today, I went for about 3 hours and the tomatoes were still quite tender, although shrunken in size and concentrated in flavor.
Somewhere I read that this is the way to bring out good flavors of tomatoes when only poor ones are in season. And using tomatoes at their peak is only better.
At the restaurant, they would have cooked them a couple hours more. For my application (a tart), I decided to leave them tender.
Do try these if you get the chance. They're sublime...
Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
From the Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld
2 pounds plum tomatoes (12-14)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons fresh English thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Cut the tomatoes lengthwise in half and remove the seeds by poking them out with your fingertip. (For presentation purposes, I also like to remove the inside rib). Toss the tomato halves with oil, salt, sugar and thyme in a bowl. Spread them out cut side up on a baking sheet. Bake the tomatoes until they are slightly browned on the edges, the skins have wrinkled and they have the texture of a soft prune, 2-3 hours. The baking time varies greatly depending on the ripeness and juiciness of the tomatoes.