A Wealth of Tomatoes

The tomato vines are sagging with fruit and I picked quite a few this morning. The Cherokee Purples can wait a few days but there are ripe plum tomatoes to deal with Now.

We haven't used any spray so a quick rinse to wash away the dust is all that's needed.

This is a lazy woman's way of preserving plum tomatoes. Remove the stem; cut tomatoes in half; cover with olive oil and a good bit of Konriko Creole seasoning ( or some other seasoned salt.) Bake at 350 till an enchanting aroma fills the house and makes your mouth water. (If you want to gild the lily, you can slice some onions and add then before baking.)

The result --about three hours later -- is great on pasta or pizza or in salads. The roasted tomatoes can be cooled and frozen in plastic freezer bags. Don't discard the oil -- it has a wonderful flavor.

Not only is this the easiest way I know of preserving tomatoes, it's the most delicious, filling your freezer with the distillation of summer.



UPDATE & CLARIFICATION

Liz emailed, in justifiable confusion, pointing out that this post says to roast at 350 for 3 hours while on my website it says 200 degrees. Oops. The thing is that 200 degrees takes forever -- that's more for making dried or semi-dried tomatoes. I got impatient and recently upped the temp. The tomatoes in this post aren't dried -- just concentrated.