Warm Your Home (and Your Plate) with Oven Roasted Tomatoes!

Nothing tastes fresher than a tomato straight from the garden with a leaf of basil and bite of mozzarella. This is my husbands favorite after work snack. We grew 4th of July tomatoes exclusively last year because we love their compact size, firm texture, and the fact that they really begin getting ripe in July! And,here it is October already (a fact I can't believe as I am having a baby in early December, and I keep asking my husband if maybe I haven't forgotten a few months in between October and December??!) and those little 4th of July's are still trying to ripen! Alas, the rainy and cool weather of autumn causes our tomatoes to lose some of their earlier freshness - they split, mold, never seem to ripen, and succumb to other sad maladies. I hate to see them just drop to the ground and turn to zombie spit, so this year Mom and I decided to gather them all up and make something good with them. The following recipe is easy...not too much measuring involved. It will make your house smell like an Italian Bistro and you may find yourself humming that ol' tune "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...that's amore..." at least that's what happened to us.

Ingredients:
A large colander worth of red tomatoes
A liberal handful of basil, chopped
Head of garlic, slivered
Large yellow onion, course chopped
Drizzle of olive oil (about 4 Tbsp)
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degree.

Rinse tomatoes and cut into roughly 1 1/2 inch chunks...if you are using the glorious 4th of July tomatoes this will mean quartering, but do what you need to with what you have. Make sure to remove any late season black-mildewy-weirdness.

Place evenly between two 9"x13" pans. Divide the basil, garlic and onion between the two pans and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Give them a stir.

Cook in preheated oven for 45 minutes - an hour, depending on your tomatoes juiciness level. A little blackening adds that delicious roasted flavor! Cool and store in airtight containers in the freezer.

Serving suggestions:
Serve as is over your favorite pasta or ravioli with a dash of fresh Parmesan!

- or - Throw a batch in the food processor to get a nice smooth sauce for pizza. My husband strongly dislikes the skins and processing them takes care of that. We also blanched and peeled a batch of the tomatoes prior to oven roasting...a bit time consuming but you get a smoother texture.

-Posted by Bethany