What do I DO with all these tomatoes?!

We do a garden every year - correction - Lou does a garden every year.  I just pick the fruits of his labors and enjoy them. 

Anyhow, anyone who has ever grown tomatoes has probably experienced having waaaay too many and trying to find ways to use them.  I've sauteed them with garlic and olive oil and basil and put them over pasta (sooo good).  I've made bruschetta with them, I've baked them with roasted chicken, I've used them to make Gazpacho, and I've canned TONS of salsa (as in, 14 quarts worth).  I'm not a big fan of canning tomatoes (don't know why, I just don't like doing it), and I don't eat them raw (yuck - I want to like them raw, I just can't), so I was trying to find a new way to use the many that we have leftover.

I got an idea from an article in the newspaper - roast them.
This, my friends, has changed my life. :)

It is sooooo easy and the results are mouth-watering.  It intensifies the flavor of the tomatoes and make them super yummy.  You need only three ingredients:  tomatoes, olive oil, and basil (fresh or dried - it doesn't matter for this recipe).

1.  Preheat your oven to 350-degrees.

2.  Get out a 9x13 glass baking pan (I wouldn't use metal - I think it might do weird stuff with the tomato acid), or an 11x6 or 8x8 or whatever, depending on how many tomatoes you have.

3.  Get out a whole bunch of tomatoes and wash them.

4.  Core and seed the tomatoes (but leave the skins on!), then cut them in half.  For beefsteak tomatoes, cut the in half horizontally, for plum tomatoes (which is what we grow), cut them in half vertically, so you have two oblong shaped halves.  Place tomatoes in the glass baking dish as you go until it is full.

5.  Drizzle 1/4-1/2 cup olive oil  over the tomatoes (I don't even measure it - I just drizzle it over generously till I think it looks good).

6.  Sprinkle with basil as desired.  (I don't have a measurement for this one - just eyeball it).  Like I said earlier, you can used fresh minced or dried.  I've used both, and honestly, with this recipe, I don't see much of a difference.

7.  Put in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then lower the temperature to 300-degrees and roast for 30-60 more minutes (it depends on the size of the tomatoes), or until the tomatoes start to collapse.

8.  Eat right away, or put them in the fridge (with the oil!), or you can even freeze them for later use (again, keep them in some of their oil to do this).

Here's what they end up looking like:

 

What, you may ask, would I do with roasted tomatoes?  The possibilites are endless, but here are a few suggestions that I've done with them:

1.  Put them on pizza (warmed up, preferably)

2.  Put them on an egg sandwich with some mozzerella (I swear to you, this is good).

3.  Put them on some Italian bread, a toasted english muffin or whole-wheat toast for a snack (simple, but very tasty)

4.  Top grilled or baked chicken with them

5.  Chop up a bunch of these, and toss them with some pasta (I think they would work well with bow-tie), along with the olive oil you roasted them in.  Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

6.  Make a sandwich with them (one of my favorite options)

• Whole wheat toast, roasted tomatoes and slices of mozzerella
•  Whole wheat toast (or untoasted - I just have a thing for toasted sandwiches) with mozzerella melted onto one slice, roasted tomatoes, turkey (roasted OR deli-style) and lettuce.  If you have one of those fancy panini thingys you could make a yummy panini-style sandwich with these ingredients. 

Here's a pic of a sandwich I made with them:

It's kind of hard to see the melted mozzerella, but it's in there, and oh, it is good...

I forgot to put the turkey on before I took the picture, but oh well - just pretend it's there.  Oh, and I burned the toast a little bit - don't do that.

P.S.  The olive oil that these are roasted in should NOT be discarded!!  It becomes infused with tomato flavor as they roast, and becomes tomato-flavored olive oil - delicious!!  Not only should you store the tomatoes in some so they don't dry out, you can use the extra oil to:

1.  Dip Italian or French bread in

2.  Mix with Balsamic Viniagrette for a simple but tasty home-made salad dressing

Here - have one last look if you still need convincing:

Mmmmmm...roasted tomato goodness.  You WANT these in your life - trust me.  It's a quick and easy way to use up all those extra tomatoes from your garden that you don't know what else to do with, and they can be enjoyed in so many ways!  So go, give 'em a try - you won't regret it. :)