handling your hoard: roasted tomatoes

tips for tuesday

notes from maggie's farm

You think it may never get here, tomato season, and surely you'll be relegated to eating sub-par, mealy grocery-store tomatoes forEVER.  And then it happens.  ALL AT ONCE.  You have homegrown tomatoes and your neighbors have homegrown tomatoes and the farmers market has homegrown tomatoes and even, on vacation, THOSE farmers markets have homegrown tomatoes.

  

And you hoard them.  From every source.  You'll never forget the days you were without, and so much like children of the Great Depression hid cash under their mattresses, you, okay, I, grab every imperfectly perfect homegrown tomato available.  You (okay, I) eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You (yes, I) preserve them whole, in relishes, in fresh salsas, and still have a few that languish past their 'best by' dates.  

That's when you grab them up before they go south, core them, halve them, season them, and roast them.  

It's really that easy.  

Core, halve, and seed tomatoes.  Paste tomatoes, like plum or San Marzano work beautifully, however any tomatoes will do. For this batch, I've used every tomato inching towards 'past its prime' that I had, gently squeezing, or scooping seeds out with a spoon.

Season to your heart's content.  I've used kosher salt, smoked black pepper, and a little bit of rosemary on this batch, however the options are endless--use your favorites, or whatever is handy in your cupboards.

Drizzle with your best olive oil.  Extra-virgin is good.  Pure olive oil is great, too.

I've added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, too.  You can use any favorite vinegar, or none at all, if you prefer.

Roast in a 450 degree, preheated oven, on a parchment- (or foil, or silicone mat) lined baking sheet, until as browned as you desire. Tomato varieties and thicknesses will cause variations in cooking times.  My tomatoes were a bit plump, and took 40 minutes to roast before I spied the caramelization and roasted edges I was after.And the results are rich, concentrated tomato flavor perfect as a bruschetta topping, tossed with pasta, as a spectacular side dish (which we'll visit later this week), dressing up old-standbys (which we'll do next week, on Tips for Tuesdays) or, very simply, eating alone, before you have time to even get the pictures taken.  They're so good.  And so easy.  Give them a try.

Read More: 

A few more easy tomato-preserving ideas from

Ina Garten, Roasted Tomatoes, via Food Network

Sun-dried Tomatoes via WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Dehydrated Tomatoes via SimplyCanning.com

What are your favorite ways of enjoying the summer's crown jewel?