Roasting tomatoes

When you get to "know" your produce, you begin to realize that when you talk about things like "apples" or "pears," or even strawberries, you sometimes have to talk about what KIND of apple or pear or whatever you mean. This is self evident for some types of produce. Does anyone confuse a golden delicious with a mcintosh (does anyone EAT a golden delicious apple? OOPS. Letting my prejudices through. Sorry). Does anyone confuse a bartlett pear with a bosc pear (now I'm on firmer ground). Strawberries can be more difficult to distinguish, as can things like raspberries, or blackberries, green beans, and so forth.

We're all pretty clear at this point on differences within tomatoes. Beefsteaks, heirlooms, cherries, pears, people get them fairly easily. When you start working within SUBclasses of classes, things do get interesting. "Yes, it's a cherry tomato but it's an HEIRLOOM cherry tomato." Oh. Amongst plum tomatoes, it also gets interesting. Is it a san marzano? Is it a capistrano? And so on , and so forth.

Plum tomatoes come into season just about last of all tomatoes (except maybe for a variety called "early girl." I have never gotten an answer as to why they're called "early girls" if they come into season so late. Maybe someone knows?). You can see pictures from Italy of villages, or families, buying scads of plum tomatoes and then cooking them down forever. We used to call them "paste" tomatoes, because they have so little water in them that they cook to a paste very easily. And that's all fine and good. Everyone should make tomato paste, or ketchup or bottled sauce with plum tomatoes ONCE. And you will thank those who do it immensely afterward. It's hard, hot work. The results are worth it, but this is one category of cooking that Annalena has decided to let pass her by these days.

BUT... I use a classic way of cooking plum tomatoes that I think is worth getting to know. It takes a while, but it's really easy to do . I'm talking about oven roasted tomatoes. These are sort of a cross between sundried and fresh tomatoes. You do have to refrigerate them, and you can't really use them the same way you would use sundried tomatoes. They come out as sort of like a thicker version of the tomato confit recipe I gave earlier. You can vary the recipe a million different ways, and here's mine.

You need a big glass or ceramic baking dish - say 9x13 inches. Then, you need enough plum tomatoes so that, when you cut them in halves, they cover the pan. You should squeeze them in tight, because they will shrink. (I hate when recipes give a number like "12." If you have 12 big tomatoes, they won't fit. If you have 12 small ones, there will be too much room.

People vary on whether they put the cut side up or down when they do these. I actually use cut side up, because I'm going to sprinkle some salt on them, and if you try to do that cut side down, the salt won't get into the tomato. You'll just get salty oil. So, put your tomatoes, cut side up in the pan. Then pour about a third of a cup of olive oil into the pan. If you dribble some on the top of the tomatoes, that's fine, but that's not your goal here. Then, sprinkle about a teaspoon and a half of kosher salt, or table salt if that's all you have, over the tomatoes. Finally, you'll want some herbs. Fresh thyme is wonderful, so is basil. Oregano is also good. What you will want to do is to put the herbs in the oil. It makes some sense to put them on top of the tomatoes, but the heat of the oven will make them crispy, and then bitter. You'll get the flavor of the herbs when the tomatoes sit in the oil. You can also add a few, or more than a few, cloves of peeled garlic to the pan.

Now, put the whole thing into the oven, at 300 degrees (you don't have to preheat but you could), and walk away for 2.5 hours, at a minimum. After 2.5 hours, take a look at your tomatoes. If they are beginning to shrivel up and look interesting, stop the cooking now, by turning off the oven, and letting them cool. If you would like to go a little further, which will strengthen the flavor and sweeten it, let them cook another half hour or so, or even longer. The longer you cook them, the more of a caramel and sugar flavor you will get (keep in mind that tomatoes are fruit and they have a high sugar content). Again, let them cool in the oven, and then, store them in a container, with the infused oil poured over them.

These tomatoes, unlike most men, are incredibly versatile. I know someone who swears by serving them with baked eggs. I don't care for baked eggs, so I skip that, but I do like them on pizza. And I also like mixing them with just a kiss of balsamic vinegar and putting them alongside of something like lamb, or a steak, or some stronger flavored meat. There have been times when I've pureed them and used them as a tomato sauce too.

I can see my friend David suggesting cooking these with some honey and making dessert as well. Maybe. But you know how I like them best? In a grilled cheese sandwich. With high quality cheddar. A close second: on top of a bowl of soup, like a bean soup or something like that.

You know there are evenings when you just sit there and watch tv. So spend ten minutes and put this together, and then go watch that tv. You'll have something wonderful to eat when the evening is over, and you don't even have to worry about getting it packed up before you go to bed. And if you brown bag your lunch, you have something nice and elegant to add to your sandwich.

Into the kitchen everyone.