I haven’t yet planted a vegetable garden in our yard. I’ve only recently figured out, after some careful weekend observation, which 25 square feet of the front yard get enough sun for enough hours of the day that vegetables might thrive there. That little patch of brown lawn is now covered with potted tomato plants, which are flowering like crazy, and have even set some fruit.
Three — count ‘em! — of my yellow plum tomatoes are almost ripe. They’re smaller than I’d expected, but a gorgeous sunny yellow. I’m giving them a couple more days before I pluck them off the plant.
Although the tomatoes I’m growing haven’t yet produced much food, the tomato growers at the local farmers’ markets have boxes and boxes of gorgeous fruits. Luscious and juicy, these tomatoes don’t need much more than a slathering of balsamic vinegar and a scattering of fresh basil to enhance their slightly acidic sweetness.
Is it any wonder that I’d want to hang on to that taste into the winter? Last fall, I “put up” tomatoes for the first time. In September, I cooked pounds of perfectly ripe tomatoes into a rich tomato puree. (The one jar remaining on the basement shelf will be gone by the end of the week.) By mid October, the tomatoes arriving at the farmers’ markets were not quite ripe — abundant still, but harvested just shy of perfection. Too impatient to wait for them to ripen on a windowsill that might not be sunny, I went looking for some other way to preserve them, while intensifying their flavor — and it seems that all the food bloggers I read were slow-roasting tomatoes.
Molly roasts tomato halves cut side up, for 4-6 hours, with coriander and sea salt, Kalyn for 9-11 hours, cut side down, with fennel and other herbs; the list goes on. The variables are herbs used and hours in the oven; the constants olive oil and low heat. After reading lots of blog posts and recipes, this is what I did:
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise, and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat cut sides of tomatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle tomatoes with ground coriander and, if you wish, a little salt. (I did one batch with salt, the following six without.) Roast the tomatoes for 8-10 hours. This timing is ideal for overnight roasting; I put the tomatoes in the oven around 10 p.m., and take them out, perfectly done, the next morning.
A couple of these tomatoes and slivers of good, sharp cheese are the perfect topping for a toasted piece of chewy sourdough bread. Thinly sliced, they add a bright, fruity note to an earthy green lentil soup. But my favorite way so far of eating them (other than straight from the oven) is in a simple, quick, but delicious pasta.
Put some pasta on to boil. While it’s cooking, chop up a few overnight tomatoes and a handful of flat-leaf parsley. Strip the leaves off a couple of sprigs of thyme. Combine the tomatoes and herbs in a bowl, and splash in a little balsamic vinegar. Grate some nice Parmesan cheese. When the pasta is cooked to your liking, drain it, then return to the pan. Toss with a healthy glug of good olive oil. Mix in the tomato-herb-vinegar mixture. Sprinkle on the parmesan cheese, and grind some black pepper on top.
Yum.
It may seem a bit early yet for canning or roasting tomatoes, but that all depends on how large a supply you want to have on hand to tide you over from this tomato season to the next. This year, I’m not going to wait until September to start preserving some summer for winter’s cold, rainy nights.
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