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31 août 2017
Posting this recipe of slow roasted cherry tomatoes with olive oil & herbs wasn’t in my original plans at all. I was rather thinking about my favorite things to do in Lyon, but then I ran out of time to finish the writing of the article and picture editing. You got it, it’s probably going to be the next one on the list.
It’s Sunday evening when I’m writing this recipe, and as always since the last weeks I’m way too late in my writing schedule. I’m leaving tomorrow for 4 days to Cologne with work – guess who is gonna edit some roasted tomatoes pictures tomorrow in the plane? -, and I don’t want to leave while knowing that I haven’t posted anything over here this week, once again. As I was already talking about it in my last blog post, I thought it was the right occasion to post again a “daily life” recipe, without any fuss, which you can make in no time and eat it weeks or months later. I’ll also create a new category called “Essentials” for all those basic recipes, so that they’re going to be easily accessible.
I completely fell in love with those slow roasted cherry tomates with olive oil & herbs, and got used to add them everywhere. As I got many requests for the recipe on Instagram, I couldn’t find a better moment to post it here: just imagine me being slightly snowed under with work + tomato season coming to an end + the winter coming so quickly…we all agree that it was the best time ;)
After many months looking for the holy grail of tomatoes in Berlin – or at least the one and only that could be able to reconcile me with tasteless plastic tomatoes, which are unfortunately too common here -, I finally found them on a stand at the Prenzlauer Berg farmers market. Organic, locally grown, with a thick flesh and heavenly flavourful – seems I finally found real tomatoes like I’m used to eat in south of France or in proper gardens. I all tried them a few times to be 100% sure I wasn’t dreaming, and my plans for the coming weeks are literally spending half of my salary in cherry tomatoes to make enough preserves to survive Berlin winter, lost in the middle of this tasteless tomato world.
Even though I may find big & raw coeur de boeuf tomatoes slightly tastier than cherry tomatoes, those ones are balls of heaven in your mouth once they are roasted and preserved. Perfectly soft and melting, I swear that I could definitely live on those slow roasted cherry tomatoes with olive oil & herbs for weeks, particularly if they are coming with creamy Mozzarella di Buffala, fresh basil, a slice of Serrano ham; the whole arranged on a briefly toasted sourdough toast. This combination is only a suggestion, but I warmly recommend it!
Ingredients
- 300g cherry tomatoes
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 drizzle + 200ml good olive oil - enough to cover tomatoes
- 1 pinch + 1tbsp herbs of your choice - here Herbes de Provence
- 1tsp sugar
- Fleur de sel
- Optional: feta crumbs, black olives,....
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 150C. Wash cherry tomatoes and cut them in 2, or in 4 for the biggest. Try to keep the stems.
- 2. Cover a tray with baking paper, then arrange cherry tomatoes all over it, cut side on top. Sprinkle with sugar, fleur de sel, herbes de Provence or other herbs, as well as a good drizzle of olive oil.
- 3. Peel garlic cloves and fold them into aluminium foil. Put it in a corner of the tray, then put in oven for about 1h30. When ready, the slow roasted cherry tomatoes should be still a bit ???, in order to obtain very soft and melty fruits when roasted.
- 4. Gently take off stems from the tomatoes - that's at least what I did to not have to do it directly in my plate when I eat some, but you can also let them if you prefer - and place the roasted cherry tomatoes in an airtight jar.Cover with olive oil, then add roasted garlic, the rest of herbs and if you wish some feta cheese or olives for instance. Stir well to repart equally the ingredients, then close the jar and store it the fridge.
Notes
Sterilisation is not necessary if the preserve is going directly into fridge after being made. If you want to prepare a big quantity of slow roasted tomatoes and store them at room temperature before opening, then it's recommended to sterilise the pots before.
