Through the halcyon days of summer I plundered the garden for the fattest, juiciest, reddest of red tomatoes. The days shortened. Marine fog drifted across the fields poking destructive fingers into the garden. Time to harvest the tomatoes, ripe or green. The heady fragrance of tomato leaves surrounded me as I filled my basket with these last jewels of summer.
The green tomatoes were tucked single layer in closed cardboard boxes. As they changed colour out they came to sit in a bright window. Taking the sun. I had already frozen tomatoes for soups and stews. These tomatoes were to be oven roasted and frozen.
I cut the little cores out. Sliced the tomatoes in half. Placed them in parchment lined pans ( saves scrubbing pans ). The tomatoes were sprinkled with a little coarse sea salt and freshly ground black paper. Then with a breeze of olive oil and graced with whole sprigs of fresh thyme.
Roast the tomatoes at 275F for about five hours. Then increase the oven temperature to 300F for the last hour. Watch these little darlings. The smaller tomatoes will brown faster and should be removed. You don’t want them to become dry and brittle. Toss the dried thyme. Store the tomatoes in plastic freezer containers with layers of parchment papers between the slices. Five pounds of fresh tomatoes will reduce down to about one pound.
It really is like magic! Oven roasted tomatoes on pizza are nothing short of divine. Tossed in pasta dishes they are brilliant shots of colour and flavour. Roasted tomatoes in the humblest of sandwiches takes the sandwich to delicious heights. Or try coarsely chopped roasted tomatoes and goat cheese on a baguette.
Bon Appetit dear friends.
