Roasted Tomatoes

Roasting tomatoes may take the good part of a day, but it's so worth it.  Roasted tomatoes are good on all kinds of things from salads and bruschetta to pizzas and sandwiches.  Sure, you can go to a grocery store and probably find roasted tomatoes in the deli or (heaven forbid) canned, but I promise you, roasting them yourself will not take too much effort and will make all the difference in your recipes that call for them.

This was my first attempt at roasting tomatoes.  Let me caution you against slicing the tomatoes too thin.  Thinly sliced tomatoes will burn before they roast.  The first time I made this recipe below, I failed two times before finally getting it right!

Though they look nice now, I promise you after 2 hours in the oven, they were
black and  shriveled.  This is an example of what NOT to do!  

So, back to what TO do, now that we have a visual of what NOT to do to have the best roasted tomatoes ever!


Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients
10+ Roma Tomatoes
EVOO
Fresh Ground Salt and Pepper
Optional: Herbs of your choosing
Optional:  Balsamic Vinegar

Directions
- Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees F
- Lightly grease / spray with cooking spray a large cookie sheet that has a small lip (like a jelly roll pan)
- Gently wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut them in half, lengthwise and place them on the pan cut-side down
- Drizzle EVOO (and balsamic vinegar should you choose to do so) generously over the tomatoes
- Using your salt and pepper grinders, crack fresh sea salt and black pepper over the tomatoes
- Finish with sprinkling the tomatoes with dried herbs
  Note: For italian dishes, I like to sprinkle dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme, but you can sprinkle any kind of herbs/spices to coordinate with your recipes (chipotle seasoning, cayenne pepper, etc.)
- After you have seasoned your tomatoes to taste, pop them into the oven for about 6 to 8 hours.
  Note:  I like to check mine every hour just to make sure everything looks good.  If your tomato sizes vary, you may need to pull out the smaller ones around 6 hours.  Once you pull the smaller tomatoes out, you can flip the larger tomatoes over to finish cooking.