New Friends, Italian Bounty, and Roasted Tomatoes

I was fortunate enough to see some new friends last night who had me to their home for a great dinner. After a delightful dinner and lots of great wine and conversation, the end of the night was nearing. Earlier, the host had asked me if I would want to have some heirloom tomatoes from their garden. As my friend Sjoerd says when I ask him if he wants another beer, "Is the Pope Catholic?" I didn't exactly say that, but I politely responded with a "that would be great". As it was nearing the time to say goodnight, I thought the subject had been forgotten, but next thing I see is the host rummaging about in his garden with a flashlight (it's after midnight) selecting an assortment of choice tomatoes and peppers for me. This generous act is an indication of what kind of evening we had experienced.

After taking the goods out of the bag and rinsing them this morning I realized that the bulk of the tomatoes are the prized San Marzano tomatoes from Naples which are reserved for making the best Italian sauces. My new friends are of Italian heritage so it makes sense that they would grow this variety. As I stared at the tomatoes over my morning espresso I was tossing around ideas of how I could honor these tomatoes and their heritage. Sauce was an obvious choice, but I wanted to do something different. So I decided to roast them in a way that they could be used in a multitude of future dishes. The process of roasting creates not only the tomatoes, but also its juices which are drained off periodically during the roasting and reserved. Both the tomatoes and the juices are then separately frozen. Here are some great ideas:

-use the juices to make a tomato vinaigrette
-juices can be incorporated in a risotto
-uses the juice in addition to a sauce to add a rich tomato flavor
-use the juice to add coloration and flavor to pasta dough
-roasted tomatoes can be incorporated with a vegetable ragout
-tomatoes can be served mixed with risotto
-toss the tomatoes in a linguini mix with oil, garlic, and herbs
-puree the tomatoes for an accent sauce or plating decoration

The ideas are endless with this versatile product.

Here is how I roasted them:

Preheat oven to 350

1. Core and cut the tomatoes lengthwise.
2. Place in a roasting pan lined with parchment paper cut side down and drizzle with olive oil, crushed garlic, thyme, rosemary, and salt & pepper

3. Roast until the skins can be easily be removed by sliding it off the flesh (approx 20 mins)

4. Drain the juices off and reserve
5. Lower oven to 275 and return pan to oven
6. continue baking until the tomatoes have reduced and almost dried while periodically draining and reserving the juices (1-3 hours depending the size of the tomatoes)
7. You can take an extra step and extract the real delicious juices/pulp out of the skins by running them though a food mill and add to the reserved juices.

7. portion the juice and tomatoes separately and freeze for 6 months or use within a week.

Thanks Joe and Jann for the great tomatoes!