Oven Roasted Tomatoes

So today, I thought I'd post about oven roasted tomatoes. Why you ask?

Well, let's just say someone went a bit crazy and bought 10lbs. of San Marzano tomatoes from a local farm that was having a tomato sale. You heard me right. A tomato sale.

If the word sale is involved you better believe it's going to grab my attention.

So anyhow, I had a crap load of delicious tomatoes that were just sitting on my table and I needed to do something with them. Enter oven roasted tomatoes.

Apparently, roasting tomatoes brings out their flavor and caramelizes them and all that fancy stuff. All I know is I wanted process them in the simplest fashion and with the least effort on my part.

Here are some pictures of the process. The pictures kinda stink, but I'll just chalk that up to my lack of photography knowledge and crappy lighting.

The end result was nothing short of delicious. The tomatoes taste like sun-dried tomatoes only way better, because they aren't dry and leathery like sun-dried 'maters can be at times.

So far I've used the tomatoes in a pasta dish with asparagus, a goat cheese and spinach sandwich, and eaten them all by themselves straight from the jar. Don't judge me.

I'm pretty sure you can use just about any tomato, so if you don't have a tomato sale in your neck of the woods use what you have and enjoy!

Oven Roasted Tomatoes
from Our Best Bites 

A bunch of tomatoes, any variety 
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
Salt
Pepper
Garlic cloves, minced or whole (I left the garlic out)


Preheat oven to 325

Cut the tomatoes in half. If you're using anything larger than a Roma tomato you may want to quarter it.  Place tomatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle with enough olive oil to coat everything and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lightly toss together.


Arrange tomatoes in a single layer, skins down, on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. If using minced garlic then sprinkle over tomatoes being careful to let most of it drop directly on the tomatoes . If you are using whole cloves just place them right on the pan with the skin on.

Place the pan in the oven and cook for 2 1/2-3 hours, depending on the size of your tomatoes. It took about 2 1/2 hours for my halved San Marzanos. The important thing is to keep an eye on them after about 2 -2 1/2 hours. After 2 1/2 hours you’ll see the juices have mostly dried up and some of the tomatoes will start to get dark around the edges.


Once the tomatoes are roasted let them cool and enjoy right away. Or you can pack them in olive oil and place them in your fridge for a week, although I doubt they'll last that long.