One of the few redeeming qualities of the pitiful, weed-infested, overgrown area of land I call my garden this year, are the robust, tomato trees, I mean plants, that have begun to produce a generous supply of plump and sweet fruit. There is really nothing that can compare in sheer goodness and flavor to a garden grown, sun-ripened tomato.
I feel blessed to have so many tomatoes, problem is, I’m running out of ideas of what to do with them. We learned our lesson from last year: NO ONE needs 10 cherry tomato plants or 10 grape tomato plants. One of each will do. But big, beefsteak, round, plump, slicing, canning tomato plants, whatever you want to call them, you can never have too many because you can always can/bottle/preserve them. I don’t quite have enough yet to bottle, but plenty to keep me racking my brain for fresh ideas about how to use them other than in salad, as salsa or spaghetti sauce. So I decided to roast them. Turned out pretty good, I liked it over sticky brown rice, but I think I’ll try it over pasta or yellow potatoes next time.
Ingredients:
- 10 garden variety large tomatoes
- 2-3 slices whole grain bread
- 1/4 c. chopped chives/green onions/scallions
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
To make:
Preheat oven to 300 F. Cut off the top 1/4 or so of the tomato. Place in a glass casserole dish and cook for 2 1/2 hours. Take out of the oven and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Put the bread on a baking sheet and bake until toast (or use a toaster). In a food processor, pulse until crumbly and mostly fine. Stir in chopped green onions, garlic powder and salt with a little liquid from the bottom of the casserole dish. Top the tomatoes with the bread crumb mixture and bake at 375 F for 20-30 more minutes. Eat alone, as a side dish, or over pasta, potatoes, quinoa, or rice.
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