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This recipe for slow-roasted tomatoes is a delicious, mostly hands-off way to use fresh, summer produce. Serve these roasted veggies as a condiment with sandwiches, stirred into pasta, or as a side dish!
Tomato season has arrived.
Every morning, I wake up, go down to the garden, and start picking tomatoes of all different shapes and sizes from their vines.
Most of the tiny tomatoes go straight into my mouth (oops!), but today I found myself staring at SO MANY cherry tomatoes.
I snacked on a few, but the rest were piled in a bowl, waiting to be used.
And I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.
This recipe for slow-roasted tomatoes is adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s, and is one of my favorites from her book Around My French Table.
Want more tomato recipes? Try these: Vegan Ratatouille Tian, Tomato Tarts, Greek Salad (Horiatiki) with Sardines, + Tomato Corn Salad
Why Slow-Roast Tomatoes?
Slow-roasted tomatoes are like a mix between sun-dried tomatoes and the most flavorful summer tomato on the planet.
Slow-roasting dries the tomatoes, concentrates all the sweet flavors, makes the best tomatoes taste even better, and makes even less-than-stellar-tasting tomatoes shine.
If you bought tomatoes that are a little bland, or have late-season, less flavorful tomatoes from the garden, this is a perfect way to use them.
But, there’s a problem.
Slow roasting is– well, it’s SLOW.
And since peak tomato season coincides exactly with the time of year when most of us dread turning on our ovens, you might hesitate to slow-roast tomatoes for an eyebrow-raising three hours.
Trust me, though, one bite, and it’ll all be worth it.
Plus, you’re roasting at an extra-low temperature, so it won’t heat your kitchen up as much as you might think.
How to Use Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
I like to eat these straight, because I just can’t get enough tomatoes in my life.
That said, these little beauties are also delicious IN your food. Use them as a condiment, and add them to anything that uses cooked tomatoes.
Try these slow-roasted tomato ideas:
- Stir them into pasta. Try adding them to my Lemon Spinach Pasta.
- Add them to a grilled cheese sandwich or cheese panini. Try adding these roasted tomatoes to Carmy’s Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
- Use them as pizza topping. Try swapping the fresh tomatoes for roasted ones in this Quick Ciabatta Pizza from Fab Food 4 All.
- Add them to polenta or grits. Try adding them to this Vegan Creamy Polenta with Red Wine Mushrooms from Rabbit and Wolves.
Enjoy these tomatoes however you like– I’ll be over here eating them straight from the pan!
Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
Yes
3 Weeks (Fridge), 10 Months (Freezer)
Ingredients
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 TB olive oil, plus more for storing (extra oil optional)
- 2 sprigs rosemary, thyme, or basil, removed from stems and roughly chopped I like to mix + use all 3 herbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225°F.
- Arrange tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet or in a large cast-iron pan. Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes, and sprinkle with the salt.
- Roast about 3 hours, until tomatoes appear dried, but are still juicy when pressed.
- Stir in the fresh herbs.
- Use immediately:Serve tomatoes as a side dish, serve on polenta, use them as pizza toppings, add them to a sandwich, or stir them into pasta.Make Ahead + Refrigerate:Gently press tomatoes and herbs into a glass jar, and cover with oil. Use within 3 weeks. Make sure to use the oil in the jar– it will become infused with tomato flavoring!Make Ahead + Freeze:Gently press tomatoes and herbs into a glass jar or freezer bag, and cover with oil. Freeze, and use within 10 months. Note: frozen tomatoes will not retain their shape as well as fresh or refrigerated, but are still delicious when used as a condiment, as pizza topping, or in pasta.
I used these to top a pizza and they were AMAZING! I’m going to make another batch!