In keeping with yesterday’s post on eating what’s in season, I thought I should show you an example of my idea of “preserving.” When I mention that I like to preserve food for the winter, I am uncomfortably conscious of the fact that I sound like some kind of back-to-the-land granola-crunchy type, or maybe some sort of doomsday militia member, digging out a bomb shelter on the back 40. I’m neither. I’m a perfectly average suburbanite with an overbooked schedule and no interest in daily grocery shopping. I like having good food within easy reach–that means my freezer or pantry.
I make these tomatoes every year, when paste tomatoes ( the sort of oval ones) are plentiful and cheap and at their best. A slightly cool-ish day when you’re going to be at home is perfect: this does require turning on the oven, and it takes several hours. But they freeze beautifully, and I use them all winter on pizzas, in sandwiches, and chopped up for soups and stews.
I first got the idea from Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors, which I think I’ve mentioned before. It’s a gorgeous book, with a ton of pictures. I like pictures. They’re incredibly useful when I have no idea what the finished product is supposed to look like (which happens a lot, given my propensity for trying new things I’ve never even heard of, never mind seen). These tomatoes seem to be fairly trendy, though–there are tons of recipes out there.
Here’s how I do it, with a nod to Deborah Madison.
Slow-roasted tomatoes
You can make as many at one time as your baking sheet will hold in one layer.Line a baking sheet with parchment, and preheat the oven to 300.
Wash the tomatoes, core them, and slice in half longways.
Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet, cut side up. Pour about 1/2 T. of olive oil in a tiny bowl, and brush it (sparingly) on the cut surfaces of the tomatoes. Sprinkle lightly with salt and a grind of fresh black pepper. (Madison adds garlic and herbs, but I prefer to leave them plain, since I can’t necessarily predict how I’ll want to season them 6 months hence).
Put them in the oven and leave them alone for a long while. Check on them every hour or so, and if they start to look dried out on top, brush them with a bit more oil.
They’ll soften and wrinkle and shrivel; this is what you want. The juicier they are, the longer they’ll take. Madison recommends two hours; I left these in for 3 and a half because I wanted them to dry out pretty well.
When they look done enough to suit you, take them out and let them cool on the baking sheet. You can eat some now, and freeze the rest. Transfer the ones you want to freeze to a parchment-lined baking sheet that will fit in your freezer (my big one won’t). Again, they need to be in a single layer. Pop them in the freezer and leave them there till they’re frozen solid. Then you can put them into a ziploc and look forward to the bright flavor of sun-ripened tomatoes in the dead of winter.
