So I got a big ass bag of tomatoes from my CSA last week, the last of summer’s finest in a wide range of shapes, sizes, colors and varieties. What’s a lady to do with a big ass bag of summer tomatoes? The way I saw it, my only real options were: *eat a caprese salad at every meal for the next week *throw them at the cat *make a pan of kick-ass Basil makes me gassy and the cat is wicked fast, so really, the decision was already made for me. I was considering making some oven-dried or semi-dried tomatoes, but then I came across this amazing recipe by David Lebovitz and was sold.
It was a recipe for preserved tomatoes, or confit of tomatoes. This has got to be the easiest, most delicious and versatile pan of food I have ever made. Oh yes. It even beats the great triple decker bacon pizza of 2006. This was serious stuff.
It was also easy as hell to make. Wash your tomatoes, take out the stem with a knife and slice in half. Put cut side down in a pan with olive oil, garlic cloves and a fistful of herbs. Bake at 250 degrees F until they are soft and look like this:
I put the tomatoes on grilled cheese sandwiches, in pasta, and pureed a few to use as pizza sauce. My favorite is taking a piece of warm toast and spreading a tomato on it, along with one of the soft, roasted garlic cloves and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Oh. Ma. Gah. So freaking delicious. Now I just need to figure what the hell the do with the rest of this week’s massive CSA.
~LTG!
