End of Summer Slow Roasted Tomatoes
Slow-roasted tomatoes are one of the late summer’s true gifts. By cooking them on low heat, the tomato flavor only intensifies, making them even more delicious! It’s super easy and you’ve love how they instantly lift a salad!
They are easily made and have so many uses. I find, once you have slow roasted the tomatoes and let them cool, it’s just your cooking style that determines how you store them. I generally keep some in a jar in the fridge. They come in very handy for snacking. Try giving them a quick blitz with some fresh herbs and have a soup base in mere minutes. Then there is a good salad to which they are the perfect addition. Roasted tomato, pesto orzo salad anyone? Summer salad dreams right there.
We’re a family who eats tomatoes on a daily basis. Cherry tomatoes in the lunchbox and a Greek or Caprese salad with dinner are pretty much staple meals in our house. Then there is the slow cooking. Slow-cooked curries, stews, and soups are full of tomatoes, whether canned, fresh, or preserved.
Basically, we can never have too many in our kitchen, even during the height of summer and tomato season when we have an abundance of vine-ripened produce. Picking straight from our garden every evening, they are always put to good use, even if it’s just some fresh sliced Summer tomatoes topped with fresh basil on a piece of crusty bread.
I’m also a sucker for a roadside tomato stall. They pop up most weekends in our little community at the end of the season and I can never resist stopping.
What you need to slow roast tomatoes?
- Cherry, grape tomatoes, or any other fresh tomatoes in season. Be sure they are at room temperature, or the cooking time will be off and you’ll get uneven cooking. I tend to use the small varieties for salads and small batches. When I’m making oven-roasted tomatoes for slow cooking over the winter months, I tend to opt for medium-sized tomatoes like Roma tomatoes.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Fresh garlic cloves left in their skins
- Coarse Salt – I mainly use Murray River sea salt flakes. It’s my go-to salt for both cooking and seasoning. However any good sea salt or kosher salt will be just fine.
- Freshly grounded black pepper
- Fresh Thyme
Equipment you’ll need
A rimmed roasting dish or sheet pan – My favorite everyday roasting dishes are lightweight stainless steel with roughly a 4 cm high side. If I’m doing a small batch of this slow-roasted cherry tomato recipe for pasta, I use my Le Creuset 30cm shallow casserole.
The details
- Preheat oven to 100°c. In an ovenproof dish, place all tomatoes in a single layer. Small tomatoes can be left whole, however, larger tomatoes need to be cut in half.
- Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Add the cloves of garlic. Then give everything a good sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper. Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour then turn the oven off and leave in the oven to cool.
Cooks notes
This big batch was bound for pasta and for salads. If you are slow-roasting tomatoes purely for a salad, you can also add a splash of balsamic vinegar with a little olive oil for a more intense flavor. Because I like to use my slow-roasted tomatoes for multiple uses, I generally don’t use balsamic like many other people do as it taints the flavor of my stews.
I have based this recipe on using smaller, cherry-type tomatoes that while slow-roasted are still juicy. If you are using a larger tomato or would prefer a more dried-out tomato, you may need to adjust your cooking time.
A few of my favorite ways to use up a glut of tomatoes
To turn a tray of oven-roasted tomatoes into an easy homemade pizza or roasted cherry tomato sauce for pasta is really simple. After cooking, discard the stalks of thyme and squeeze the garlic cloves to remove all the pulp inside. Blend everything (skins and all) with a stick blender, or food processor with the multipurpose blade. Pulse until you get the consistency you require. I like mine quite rustic so I only tend to give it a quick whizz. If you find the sauce a little runny, you can always pop the sauce into a pot on medium heat on the stove (with the lid off) and reduce it a little. Use it as a quick tomato pasta sauce or on top of a pizza base.
If you are looking for a bit of inspiration check out my slow-cooked Beef & Red Wine Ragu. It’s my favorite way to use up any frozen, slow-roasted tomatoes I may have lying around. Just substitute the canned tomatoes for slow-roasted ones!
How does a slow-roasted tomato soup sound?
I’m all for tomato, burrata, fresh basil, and a good drizzle of balsamic on a nice crusty piece of bread all day every day.
A simple, but perfect ham, cheese, and oven roasted tomato grilled sandwich is a quick and easy supper. You could even add a pot of this spiced vegetable soup to beef things up a bit!
Throw some in a pan with some cooked pasta, olive oil, fresh basil, parmesan, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper for a quick 10-minute weekday dinner.
How long will they keep?
In the fridge, slow-roasted tomatoes will keep for up to 3 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
How to Freeze slow roasted tomatoes
At the end of Summer, with our excess slow-roasted tomatoes, I am very fond of freezing them in small batches in an airtight container. Those reusable and freezable, zip lock storage pouches come in so handy here. Once you have let them cool, just pop them into the freezer bags. Be careful not to overfill, so there is room for expansion when frozen. Then pop them into the freezer until needed. Your winter slow cooking will be transformed!
If you are short on freezer space or prefer to preserve your tomatoes by bottling them, check out my post on how to sterilize preserving jars for a bit of a head start.
Because there is always more to preserve…
- Strawberry & thyme cordial
- How to dehydrate Autumnal fruits
- 5 reasons why you need to dehydrate citrus this Winter
- Caramelized balsamic onion and thyme jam
- Dehydrated figs
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Print
End of Summer Slow Roasted Tomatoes
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 10 serves 1x
- Category: Preserving
- Method: slow cook
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Slow roasted tomatoes are one of late summer’s true gifts. They are easily made and have so many uses. I find, once you have slow roasted the tomatoes and let them cool, it’s really just your cooking style that determines how you store them.
Ingredients
- 1 kg Cherry Tomatoes (or any other tomato on hand)
- Olive Oil (extra virgin)
- 2 Garlic (cloves)
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper (fresh, coarse ground)
- Thyme (fresh)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 100°c. In an ovenproof dish, place all tomatoes in a single layer. Cherry tomatoes can be left whole, however larger tomatoes need to be cut in half.
- Drizzle to tomatoes with the olive oil. Add the garlic cloves. Then give everything a good sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper. Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour then turn the oven off and leave in to cool.
Notes
This batch was bound for a pasta and for salads. If you are slow roasting tomatoes purely for a salad, you can also add a splash of balsamic vinegar with the olive oil for a more intense flavour. Because I like to use my slow roasted tomatoes for multiple uses, I generally don’t use balsamic like many other people do as it taints the flavour of my stews.
If you are looking for a bit of tomato inspo check out my slow cooked Beef & Red Wine Ragu . It’s my favourite way to use up any frozen slow roasted tomatoes I may have laying around. Just substitute the canned tomatoes for slow roasted ones!
To make an easy pizza or pasta sauce…
To turn a tray of oven-roasted tomatoes into an easy pizza or pasta sauce is really simple. After cooking, discard the stalks of thyme and squeeze the garlic cloves to remove all the pulp inside. Pop everything (including all the juices) into a blender or food processor with the multipurpose blade. Pulse until you get the consistency you require. I like mine quite rustic so I only tend to give it a quick whizz. If you find the sauce a little runny, you can always pop the sauce into a pot on a medium heat on the stove (with the lid off) and reduce it a little.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 71
- Sugar: 2.9 g
- Sodium: 242.2 mg
- Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 13 g
- Protein: 2.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Great way to elevate any salad or roast. added so many great flavors
Sounds delicious Heidi, thank you for following along x