Holding Onto Summer With Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet and savory summer slow-roasted tomatoes. Image by Gwynne Middleton.

When the last week of August rolled around this year, our tomato plants, drooping with green fruit, finally edged over into the pinks and and pale reds that promised tomatoes from the yard for weeks to come. Since then I’ve made a couple of batches of salsa and eaten enough tomato-topped salads to get me researching other preparation methods to preserve this “taste of summer” a little longer. I didn’t need to look long on the Internet to uncover numerous recipes for oven-roasted tomatoes, a juicier take on the sun-dried tomato but that can still pack incredible flavor and texture.

Below you’ll find a recipe for Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, a great way to use excess tomatoes while they are at peak ripeness. After they cool, you can keep the tomatoes in a container in the fridge and use within a week. You can also carefully pack freezer bags with cooled roasted tomatoes and save them for the dead of winter when you’re aching for some sunshine and outdoor sandals.

I will always prefer a seasonal tomato over a winter tomato from the supermarket–a sad, mealy affair best left in the produce bin. But if you want to make winter tomatoes work for you in your cooking, I recommend applying this recipe (with adjustments to ingredients) to a batch of slow-roasted halved Roma tomatoes, which I’ve incorporated successfully into tart and pasta recipes.

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Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds cherry tomatoes

• Salt to taste

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

• 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• Parchment paper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl toss the tomatoes, salt, sugar, and oil. Place tomatoes on the baking sheet, and then place in oven in 45 minutes, or until the skins start to shrivel and just split. Remove from heat, and allow to cool before storing in refrigerator or freezer.

3. These will last about a week in the fridge or up to 6 months in the freezer.

Note: If you’re not planning to use the batch in a recipe immediately and are refrigerating them, keep timing in mind so that you can either warm them or allow them to reach room temperature before using in a recipe.