slow-roasted tomatoes

These tomatoes are fantastic if you make them in the summer with fresh, local tomatoes—but they are also very good using plum tomatoes, any time of the year. And to add to their charm, they freeze and thaw wonderfully! You can just pop them out of the freezer any time you need a quick little appetizer bite, or a nice addition to an open-faced sandwich. You can eat them on toast, or as a component in a composed salad like the salade nicoise with roasted beets & potatoes. If we’re having people over for dinner, I love to serve these tomatoes, along with little plates and bowls of several other tidbits—like some stalks of pickled asparagus, a tiny bowl of nice green olives, maybe a bowl of crisp potato chips, and/or some celery or red peppers with hummus.

One thing I really like to do for this recipe, because it makes the preparation so easy and fast, is to use olive oil spray in a can. One brand I like (it actually tastes like extra-virgin olive oil!) is Spectrum Naturals.

10 or 12 medium or large tomatoes (any kind if local, or plum tomatoes if not)
olive oil (in a spray can, if you have it)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Slice each tomato in half, pole to pole.
3. Coat a large baking sheet with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
4. Line up the tomato halves on the sheet, cut side up. Spray the cut surfaces well with olive oil (or use a pastry brush and brush the oil on if you don’t have a spray can). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Roast for an hour, then rotate the tray and roast for another hour. When they are nice and collapsed to about half their original thickness, golden-brown on top, and browning around the edges, take them out. Eat them warm, room-temperature, or cold—right out of the fridge!