Garden Recipe: Slow Roasted Tomato Candy
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sworn at a food website “just give me the damn recipe!” I love the storytelling, but I don’t love scrolling through it while my hands are covered in egg wash and flour. So here, you’ll always get the recipe first, and you can choose to read the story after if you so desire.
Slow Roasted Tomato Candy Recipe
Make this recipe on a cool fall day when the aromas will fill your home and soothe any sadness that summer is coming to an end. I use this ‘candy’ in so many dishes. Eggs, pizza, pasta, soup, dips, and chilli, just to name a few.
5 - 6 pounds local, in season, Roma tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work too)
1/2 - 3/4 head of garlic - peeled and chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
Directions
Cover three good-sized cookie trays with parchment paper.
Slice your Roma tomatoes in quarters lengthwise, and as you slice, lay them out on your cookie tray with the seed side facing up, if they are wobbly and insist on laying on their sides, that’s ok too. For smaller cherry tomatoes, just slice them in half.
Peel and chop a fresh half head of garlic, and sprinkle it evenly on the tomatoes.
Liberally douse the tomatoes and garlic with olive oil. I have a little spout for my olive oil bottles, it makes this job much easier.
And finally, sprinkle liberally with coarse sea salt.
Place in the oven at 190F for 6-8 hours. You can tell they are ready when they are almost fully dehydrated. Store them in the freezer in an airtight bag. Mine last at least 9 months (they might not be as fresh by then, but they still taste pretty darn good).
A few notes
You can try this recipe with any tomato type really, I just like Roma as they are meatier and less juicy.
This is a good recipe to double to triple - you just need the oven time to cook them.,
The Story
That’s my Mom in the midst of tomato processing weekend.
Tomato candy is so simple, only four ingredients. It’s secret is the tomatoes. The modern North American grocery store has made almost every dish possible year-round, but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Making this recipe in January with under-ripe, watery, thick-skinned, grocery store tomatoes would result in certain failure. This recipe must be reserved for a time of year when you can get local, no-spray, sun-ripened tomatoes (in Alberta, that’s late summer & early fall).
Embracing seasonality, especially in a place like Alberta that has such distinct seasons, is a great joy. Eggnog tastes so good because we associate it with crunchy snow, crackling fires, and boisterous get-togethers. Bright, tart, rhubarb is exciting because it signals spring. Tomato Candy means fall has arrived in all its glory. The days are getting crisp, the leaves are changing colour, the comforting routine of September has arrived. You have to wait. That’s what makes this recipe so special.
Tomato candy is a great way to preserve the flavour of summer for dark Canadian winter nights. This recipe was my first foray into preserving food. I was terrified of canning (due to an unnamed book that had me convinced I would almost certainly poison my family with botulism), so this seemed like a safe easy way to get started. Really the worst thing that can happen is that they go stale in the freezer. Mind you, that’s never happened to us, we eat them too quickly.
Tomato candy is a catalyst to kitchen creativity, it can be used as your secret ingredient so many dishes. Keep in mind that they pack a huge punch of flavour, you don’t need much. I like to take mine right out of the freezer and slice them into thin strips. Try them in scrambled eggs, omelettes and quiche; as a pizza topping; as a flavour enhancer in almost any pasta dish (mac and cheese is a favourite); on top of a burger paired with caramelized onions; or in chili, soup, or stew.