Tiny Tasty Tomatoes

(or Oven Roasted/Dried Grape Tomatoes)

For the most part, I'm not really a huge fan of sun dried tomatoes, but I have found that sometimes I like roasted or grilled (and marinated) tomatoes. I like to have them with salads or even on a cheese plate.

Recently I found myself with an overabundance of grape tomatoes so I thought I'd give making some of my own a shot. After perusing the web and looking through some of my cookbooks, I came up with my own recipe....

1 lb of grape tomatoes (each sliced lengthwise)
1-2 Tb dried or fresh herbs (or a combo, which is what I did)--I used rosemary,
             basil, oregano, and some parsley
1-2 Tb good olive oil
1 Tb balsamic vinegar
2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Heavy pinch (or two) of sea salt

I chopped (or crushed if they were dry) the herbs and garlic. I thought that by cutting each of the tomatoes in half, length-wise it would make it easier for the juices to evaporate out of them and also make them look pretty when they were done. I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl to make sure the tomatoes were well marinated. And turned them out on to a baking sheet... making sure there was only a single layer.

To be honest, the tomatoes looked very tasty and perfectly edible before even putting them in the oven. I could see using this recipe (without roasting the tomatoes) on a hot summer day either as a salad on their own (or with fresh mozzarella pearls) or added to fresh cooked pasta with some grated Parmesan Reggiano.... just some ideas I had.

Add these little babies to freshly cooked pasta with some grated parm... yum!

However, I decided to go with my initial plan and popped them in the oven to roast on 400° for about 15 minutes (my house smelled fantastic after making these). After that, I took them out, shook the pan a bit and then put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes, but this time I lowered the temperature to 300° more to let them dry out some more. Sadly, I think that was a little too hot because many of them seemed to be a little too "dried" (aka a little burnt). Next time I'll probably try lowering it to 250° or 200° and keep them in the oven for 20-30 minutes after the initial roasting, nevertheless they were still really very tasty.

I enjoyed these guys for the next couple of days. As I mentioned before, they were perfect on a salad and great with a cheese plate, but I think they could also add a little something to almost any dish that calls for chopped tomatoes.

There are several recipes out there that just oven dry the tomatoes (no roasting) and those usually bake the tomatoes for up to six hours (for regular tomatoes though, not grape ones) on 225° and other recipes that roast the tomatoes for 20 minutes at 450° and that's it. My goal was to try and get somewhere in between the roasted and dried. They may not have come out perfectly, but they were still pretty yummy.