Delicious Intense Slow Roast Cherry Tomatoes with Thyme, Oregano & Basil
I pretty much always have a jar of shop bought sun dried tomatoes in the fridge and I thought why not try making slow roast cherry tomatoes at home after seeing a big bag with a yellow sticker for 25p in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago. I am also quite bad at not using up a whole pack of cherry tomatoes and this could be a great way to use up over ripe ones from the bottom of the fridge and stop them going to waste.
This is a really simple process and as long as you cover the cooked tomatoes in oil in a sterile jar they will keep for weeks in your fridge. They are great for cooking with, adding to tapas style dinners or just snacking on if you fancy it. The other lovely thing is once you have used all of the slow roast cherry tomatoes you are left with an awesome flavoured oil that is great for coating aubergines, or any other veg, before roasting.
I made a slight error the first time I made these and filled the sterile jar with olive oil and it set solid in the fridge, woops. I would recommend using a rapeseed oil.
You can see how to sterilise jars here if you are unsure and have never done it before.
To make one small jar of slow roast cherry tomatoes you need a starting weight of around 350g of cherry tomatoes, keep an eye out in the supermarkets for the yellow stickers for a bargain. You could also mix and choose your herbs as you wish, I think they would be really nice with an addition of a smoky spice like ancho chilli.
Slow Roast Cherry Tomatoes Recipe
Start by cutting all of your tomatoes in half and popping into a bowl.
Cut Cherry Toms in Half
Next, coat your tomato halves in whatever mix of herbs or spices you fancy. I went for dried thyme, oregano and basil. Add a good glug of oil and season well with salt and pepper.
Coat With Herbs & Oil
Mix the tomatoes well to give an even coating and then lay them out on a oven proof dish with the cut side facing up the way. Pop into a 140C fan oven.
Lay Out Cut Surface Up
Slow roast cherry tomatoes until they dried out and shrivelled up like below picture. This took about 2 hours but start checking from about 1 hour into the cooking as moisture content will vary depending on season and variety of tomato. Don’t worry about letting the tomatoes take a good colour, this will add to the flavour. Just don’t let them actually burn.
Slow Roast Cherry Tomatoes
Place the tomatoes into a sterilised jar and cover with oil and leave to cool before tightening the lid.
Jarred Slow Roast Cherry Tomatoes
And there you have it, slow roast cherry tomatoes made at home for a delicious fridge staple ingredient to use as you wish.
Pop back in a few days to see a recipe I used them for.
Hope you enjoy & do leave a comment.
S Xx
