How to roast tomatoes
Repeat after us – “roasting concentrates flavour roasting concentrates flavour.” It’s our mantra, even in summer and yes, even with tomatoes. Roasted tomatoes taste amazing; sweet and intense, they're useful for so many things. Hurl them into a salad, throw them into a sauce for pasta, put them alongside cheeses or on an antipasto selection on a board, or turf them onto a pizza with other summery flavours (prosciutto, basil, burrata and olives spring to mind)… the world really is your roasted tomato.
1. What can we say? Great roasted tomatoes start with… great tomatoes! We love using home-grown or heirloom ones for maximum sweet flavour. But honestly? Use what you’ve got. Roasting improves even a sub-par tomato. We used about 1kg of tomatoes for our batch but there are no hard and fasts. Cook as many as you like.
2. Assemble your ingredients; you’ll be needing EVOO, a dash of balsamic vinegar, sugar, some garlic, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
3. Using a small, sharp knife, cut out the stem end of your toms. No-one wants to choke on those.
4. Cut the toms in half (you can also cut them into wedges), then arrange them in a roasting dish in a single layer.
5. Sprinkle the toms lightly with a little sugar, about 2-3 tbsp balsamic and ½ cup EVOO, then strew with some sliced garlic cloves and fresh thyme sprigs (if you don’t have these, it’s not a big deal). Season with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, then roast.
6. Roast them for about 1-1¼ hours but, if you like your toms more shrivelled and a bit caramelised, simply cook them for longer. It’s up to you. You can’t really bugger these up. Believe us, we’ve tried. That’s it! Parade your toms around the house to the tune of “look what I made”, then prepare for accolades galore, flowers at your feet and general adoration.