Slow-Roasting Tomatoes
I don’t know that I’ve ever met a tomato recipe I haven’t liked, but there are some that I love more than others. One of my favorite ways to enjoy summer tomatoes is by slow-roasting them in the oven. You can throw these on pizza, on salads, eat them plain or my favorite, on top of some toast with an egg. When you slow roast tomatoes it deepens the flavor and concentrates the sugars. As a result you’re left with delicious jammy little puddles of tomato goodness, and making them couldn’t be simpler! This is even a great way to deal with so-so tomatoes that you buy from the store or the end of the season tomatoes that are ripened indoors and lack the sun-ripened flavor.
You can use any kind of tomato, from cherries to beefsteaks, just keep in mind that the larger the tomato the longer it will take to roast. Roma types that are dry roast quicker so check them earlier, but beefsteaks are more concentrated when roasted so they taste better. If you’re going to roast a batch, you may as well do an entire oven full to save energy and I guarantee you’ll always want more!
All you need to do it is cut the tomatoes in half, lay skin side down on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (the parchment helps get them up later). If you want to, drizzle with olive oil and some freshly chopped herbs and sprinkle with salt and pepper, or simply roast as is, it’s up to you, I do both. Roast in a 225 degree oven for 4-8 hours or until reduced in size and slightly moist, cooking time depends on size of tomatoes and your oven. You can try raising oven temp to 250, but you may get some dark spots on the tomatoes, it depends on your oven. I like to put mine in the oven before I go to bed and set the timer for 6 hours. The next morning I check the tomatoes, remove any that are finished and continue roasting any tomatoes that aren’t quite done. You can taste one after 3-4 hours and you’ll be able to tell if it’s done or not. It should taste like concentrated tomato with a slightly sweet tang. If it’s still acidic and sour, roast for a while longer.
These will need to be frozen to preserve them. I usually freeze on the cookie sheets, then store in a large bag. That way can I get one or twenty depending on what I’m making. I like to use slow-roasted tomatoes in my homemade ketchup, I find it adds a wonderful rich flavor and reduces the cooking time. I don’t roast them quite as long as when I do this since it’s much easier to extract the peels and seeds when they’re not quite as dry.
Have you ever slow roasted tomatoes?
Filed under Freezing, Harvest Keepers Challenge, Recipe, Tomato | Comments (12)On My Windowsill
I’m enjoying seeing big beefsteak tomatoes sitting on my kitchen windowsill just waiting to be sliced up for a meal.
This is a lovely ‘White Beauty’ tomato, we’re also eating ‘Sub-Arctic’, ‘Chianti Rose’, and ‘Cherokee Purple’. No ripe ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes yet, I can’t wait for one of those, I think it will still be a few weeks. We enjoy them sliced, drizzled with a little olive oil and topped with some freshly ground salt (Himalayan pink salt at the moment).
What’s your favorite way to eat fresh tomatoes?
Filed under Edible, Tomato | Comments (14)Time to Fertilize those Tomatoes
Just a reminder if you live in the colder northern climates, that it’s time to give your tomatoes a little fertilizer to ensure that they remain productive until the end of the season. Tomatoes are heavy feeders so they appreciate a little fertilizer mid-season to keep them growing and producing heavily until frost. If you fertilize now, you give them a little boost so they set new blooms and will produce a last flush of tomatoes before the cold fall weather.
You want to make sure you use a fertilizer that’s rich in potassium and not too high in nitrogen, otherwise they will only produce lots of leaves. Fertilizing is vital if you’re growing your tomatoes in pots, as they use up the nutrients quickly in the limited amount of soil. They can benefit from some topdressing with compost and fertilizer each month.
I like to give mine a mid-season side dressing of bat guano, each plants gets a Tablespoon or two. Because of the make up of guano, it is very beneficial for fruiting plants and trees. I find that it helps my tomatoes green up nicely and set lots of new fruit this time of year. My bat guano comes courtesy of my dad, who harvests it from a local church belfry every couple years. You can also water every 3-4 weeks with a fish/seaweed emulsion as tomatoes really love that as well. Since I have very poor soil in the front garden, I use a very weak fish emulsion each month on those tomatoes, about 25% strength, my favorite is Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fish & Seaweed. Side dressing with comfrey leaves is also beneficial for tomatoes, you can add the chopped leaves at planting time and mid-season.
Do you fertilize tomatoes mid-season? Do you use anything special?
Filed under Edible, Tomato | Comments (15)First Official Ripe Tomato
Last Week on Friday I picked my first official ripe tomato of 2010, right before we left for vacation. Of course I picked a few earlier that were from a volunteer, but these are labeled “official” since they were from plants that I started from seed.
They were ‘Zapoted Pleated’ and ‘Constoluto Genovese’ tomatoes. If I remember correctly these two tomatoes were among the first I picked last year as well. I was thinking that my ‘Sub-Arctic’ would be the first. It’s loaded with tomatoes, but only one is starting to turn.
It looks like I have a ‘Goldman Italian American’ ripe on the vine now that I’m finally home from vacation. We made it home much later than expected after coming through some pretty serious storms in SE Ohio. Fortunately we were on a major highway when they hit, but when we got off on the back roads to head home we had to turn around five times to find another route after coming across power lines and trees blocking the roads.
We ended up on some back roads, that could barely be called roads that were also littered with fallen trees and branches, but not completely cut off. Finally we made it home, much later than expected, but that is one the drawbacks of living in a rural area!
Have you harvested your first official tomato yet? What variety was it?
Filed under Edible, Tomato | Comments (21)The First Ripe Tomato of 2010
On Wednesday evening I picked my first ripe tomato of 2010. Well at least the first official ripe tomato, I had a few that ripened earlier but they had blossom end rot, so they don’t count. Oddly enough these little tomatoes came from a volunteer plant that is growing in with some of my potatoes. I saw the plant sprout early and was wondering what kinds of tomatoes it would produce. They’re small, but not cherries, in between a cherry and a regular tomato. They grew well in the cool spring and didn’t freeze out with the frosts we had early in the season. If I like the flavor I may save some seeds and try planting in outside earlier than the others next spring. Perhaps this could be the ‘Chiot’s Run’ tomato.
Are you harvesting any ripe tomatoes yet?
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