Slow Roasted Tomatoes

This is a very nice recipe --- and very adaptable to personal tastes -- especially on a day when you might -- for whatever reason feel "cooked out". Also brings a hint of summer in the dead of winter when roasting can bring out the flavor of maybe less-than-perfect tomatoes. And not much clean-up at all.

I was fortunate to find some really good grape tomatoes at Costco. Halved and tossed with EVOO, fresh thyme (dried would be fine too -- or whatever herbs you like), unpeeled cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper. Then into a 225-250 oven for 2-3 hours.

The end result was a little chewy, very tasty jewel of intense tomato flavor.

I tossed mine with spaghetti, added a bit of additional EVOO, some grated parmesan, and a scattering of chopped parsley. Simple salad of romaine and blue cheese on the side.

I'd rate my execution a 3 (but the recipe a 4-5) since I was interrupted by a phone call and some of my tomatoes were maybe a touch or more overdone -- and I ended up having to throw out the brown rather than golden garlic instead of adding it to the pasta. Still, the dish had that garlicky perfume so not a total loss.

Next time, I might add some diced fresh mozzarella or a splash of an aged balsamic vinegar to finish. Summer I'd do basil rather than parsley or maybe a mix of the two. Also, I'd add some garlic bread and drink a Chianti rather than the remainder of the Sauvignon Blanc we had open in the fridge.

A nice "comfort food" meal for winter house guests when you'd rather spend time with them than in the kitchen.

Note: The overdone tomatoes were not bad -- just dense and chewy with a lot of tomato flavor, almost raisin-like in texture. And they gave me an idea. Since I have about a pint of the grape tomatoes left, I will use them to try a recipe (link below) for "tomato raisins" -- think they would be great in a salad with pine nuts and shaved parmesan. Or pressed into a homemade foccacia dough just before baking.

http://jessthomson.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/tomatoraisins.pdf