We love roast tomatoes and they have so many uses. We like them as a simple side to some fish, in pasta sauces or risottos, or – our new favourite – on toast with some cottage cheese. They are incredibly easy to make, just allow at least an hour or more to cook them.
You can flavour them with anything you feel like or have to hand, too. Today we used fresh rosemary & thyme, garlic & some chilli flakes. This is probably our favourite combination for roast tomatoes. But we also like oregano, cayenne, coriander, mixed herbs, shallots or a little vinegar. Our only constants are olive oil and a good seasoning of salt & pepper. But we’d perhaps argue the garlic is a must too.
First pre-heat your oven. You can cook roast tomatoes really long and slow in a cool oven at about 120 to 130C (100 to 110 C fan) for 2.5 to 3 hours. Or really fast in a 200C oven for about 25 to 30 minutes. A slow roast will give you sweet, jammy, quite dry roast tomatoes. A fast roast will give you a plumper, juicier but wetter result. It depends on what you prefer and your planned end use. We like to do them somewhere in between – we set the oven to 180C (160C fan) and roast for an hour or slightly more. This to us gives the perfect roast tomatoes – soft, sweet, juicy and yielding, but not too wet.
Very small tomatoes can be roasted whole. Large ones are better cut into large pieces. Today we had a combination of sizes, and cut the larger tomatoes into 4 and the smaller ones in half. Remove the core and any obvious white pith.
Add a good slug of olive oil to a wide oven-proof pan. We used a low casserole dish, but a roasting tray will do fine so long as you can get the tomatoes in in roughly one layer. You need enough oil to just cover the bottom.
Arrange the tomatoes in the pan, skin side down. It is fine if the tomatoes are quite crowded with a few overlaps, but try to get them as close to one layer as possible, so all the tomatoes touch a little of the surface of the pan.
Now peel & chop the garlic. See our garlic Tip. We think tomatoes and garlic are such a perfect match, so we use quite a lot. Today we used 7 cloves, though some were quite small. But you can add to your taste.
Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the tomatoes.
Next add the herbs. Dried herbs are totally fine in this dish, though today we used fresh. Strip the leaves from the rosemary and thyme, and chop quite fine. Rosemary needs more chopping than thyme as the needles are larger and tougher, so you may want to do them separately. See our herb Tip.
Jake sticks his nose in
To strip the leaves off woody herbs like rosemary & thyme, pinch between your finger & thumb and run your hand down the stem. See the first two pictures above. Rosemary is generally easier to strip than thyme. With thyme you may also need to pull some leaves off separately.
Sprinkle both herbs evenly over the tomatoes.
We like to add a little heat to the tomatoes, and find chilli flakes a particularly good pairing. They add just a touch of spiciness without overpowering the tomatoes. We add a few large pinches. If you like it hotter you can also add cayenne, chilli powder or fresh chillies. If you like it less spicy, use fewer flakes, or replace with more black pepper. Also season well with salt & black pepper. We are not big fans of adding a lot of salt, but tomatoes really do need some, so add a big pinch of salt and be generous with the black pepper.
Finally, drizzle all over with more olive oil. We tend to err on the side of adding more rather than less – you want the tops of all the tomatoes and the herbs coated in oil.
Jake sticks his nose in
It’s important to coat everything well in oil. This stops the garlic & herbs from burning in the oven before the tomatoes are cooked. You can also spoon some oil off once cooked if you add too much, so coat your tomatoes well.
Your tomatoes are ready to go into the oven!
Place into the hot oven and cook until soft and well done, about an hour. Today we cooked ours for about 1h 15 minutes. You should fill your kitchen with a lovely tomatoey herby smell too!
When done, remove from the oven using gloves and serve with a slotted spoon to remove any excess oil.
Today we made a nice big batch and served half on toast with cottage cheese for a delicious Simple Supper. The other half we used as a side with some poached fish. The tomatoes will keep well in the fridge for a few days.
Enjoy!
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