Got Tomatoes?

As the tomatoes ripen fast and furious on the vine this time of year, I can’t help but go into crazy, gotta-preserve-those-tomatoes-for-the-winter mode.

Tomatoes

Because I have a CSA share, a garden, and work at a wonderful food co-op that piles luscious, local tomatoes high in displays when I come in to work in the morning, I feel it’s my duty to find a way to make those tomatoes last (particularly the about-to-burst ones, which I feel a special frenzy to deal with).

Large, juicy heirloom tomatoes end up in lacto-fermented salsa preserved simply with sea salt, which is a skill I learned and wrote about last year:

Lacto-fermented salsa

Other tomatoes get thrown, whole, in the freezer in Ziploc bags, and will be pulled out later in the year for soups, stews, and salsas. A farmer taught me that trick with a localvore tomato salsa in the winter, and I've been freezing whole tomatoes ever since.

But for something you can enjoy today AND on a chilly future evening, slow roasting tomatoes can't be beat. Eat some right away with crusty bread and goat cheese or socca (chickpea flatbread), and store remainders in mason jars in the fridge (2 weeks) or freezer (8 months) for a rainy day.

We have THREE classes this month where you can learn to dehydrate, lacto-ferment, and can local tomatoes. Scroll down to read about them and sign up! They are all fantastic classes.

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes with Socca

Tomatoes

Slice tomatoes in half, right on the baking sheet (the ones that split as you pick them help this process along)

Tomatoes

After roasting for 2-3 hours, the tomatoes start to caramelize around the edges, but are still juicy and sweet.

Batter for Socca

While the tomatoes are roasting, you can prepare the batter for socca, a chickpea flatbread from southern France.

Socca

Remove tomatoes from the oven and crank the oven to "broil." You want to make a thin, charred, crispy flatbread.

Tomatoes and Socca

Eat it piping hot from the oven drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, coarse sea salt, and roasted tomatoes. Yum!

Stored Tomatoes

Store remaining tomatoes in mason jars with extra olive oil, and refrigerate for 2 weeks or freeze for 8 months.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes, sungold tomatoes, or other small heirloom tomatoes
Whole gloves of garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Herbs such as thyme, oregeno, rosemary, parsley

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each tomato and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle herbs on, if you are using them, and a little salt and pepper.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Either use them right away or let them cool, cover them with some extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge for 3 days, or the freezer for up to 6 months.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Socca

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup plus 2 Tbs. water
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. ground cumin
2 1/2 Tbs. olive oil, divided

freshly-ground black pepper, plus additional sea salt and olive oil for serving

Mix together the flour, water, salt, cumin, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Let batter rest at least 2 hours, covered, at room temperature.

To cook, heat the broiler in your oven. Oil a 9- or 10-inch (23cm) pan with the remaining olive oil and heat the pan in the oven.

Once the pan and the oven are blazing-hot, pour enough batter into the pan to cover the bottom, swirl it around, then pop it back in the oven.

Bake until the socca is firm and beginning to blister and burn. The exact time will depend on your broiler.

Slide the socca out of the pan onto a cutting board, slice into pieces, then shower it with coarse salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Cook the remaining socca batter the same way, adding a touch more oil to the pan between each one.

Makes about 3 10-inch flatbreads.

Recipe from David Lebovitz, The Sweet Life in Paris


“Knowledge is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting in your fruit salad.”

-Miles Kingston

Tomatoes

Cooking Classes, Food Preservation