Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
In the culinary world, good things often come in small packages. That’s especially true with tomatoes — the smaller they are, the more flavor they tend to have. And the more dehydrated they are, the more flavor they tend to have, too, as in sun-dried tomatoes and roasted tomatoes.
Although usually the roasted tomatoes I’ve come across have been larger ones like Romas and beefsteaks, this week, I decided to try roasting cherry tomatoes for two reasons. I had two reasons for that: my mother and I had experimentally roasted both large and small (and ripe and unripe) ones recently — and they were equally fabulous in different ways! — and because my tomato plants continue to heroically put out a pound of tomatoes every day despite having been hit by a ravaging powdery mildew back in July. I just can’t stand to waste a single tomato (or “love apple,” as they used to be called). Not when my six plants are battling the mildewy odds and winning!
Roasting tomatoes is beyond simple — it’s probably the easiest fruit/vegetable there is to roast, actually. Seeing as the umami flavor (that elusive “fifth sense” present in soy sauce, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, and a few other foods) is concentrated around the tomato seeds, don’t seed them! Just cut them in half and roast away.
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Either cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or use an old, non-pristine baking sheet that you don’t mind staining.
Cut tomatoes in half and spread them out on the baking sheet. Drizzle with enough extra-virgin olive oil (or unrefined peanut oil or unrefined coconut oil) to lightly coat the tomatoes when you toss them. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste and toss them again.
Make sure the tomatoes are evenly spread out on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are softened and shriveled. If you want to make garlicky roasted tomatoes, toss them with chopped garlic for the final 5 minutes of roasting. (Chopped garlic burns easily, so you don’t want to cook it very long.)
You can eat your roasted tomatoes out of hand, include them in salads and stir-frys, top pizzas with them, use them to make tomato-based sauces like marinara or chili sauce, include them in soups…really anything you like. Their tangy-sweet juiciness makes them delicious with just about anything! I could even see putting them on vanilla ice cream along with a splash of maple syrup — tomatoes are fruits, after all.
Enjoy!
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