Today I'm doing something a little different. I'm sharing a simple recipe. Before Chris found his calling as a professional yarn dyer he worked for years as a professional cook. Having a chef in the house is amazing. Chris showed me how to make confit tomatoes and now I'm hooked. I like to cook as well, but mostly on the weekends when I've got lots of time and energy. This recipe for confits tomatoes is something that I like to do on a Sunday when I've got nowhere to be. The tomatoes last for weeks in the fridge and are so incredibly delicious. You could compare them to sun dried tomatoes, but the flavour is much more intense and vibrant. They are precious little bites of heaven.
Start with a bunch of roma tomatoes. We go to a local produce store that sells produce at ridiculously low prices. These 32 tomatoes cost less than $5.
With a very sharp knife, score the tops of the tomatoes with an X. In small batches of 5 or 6 tomatoes at a time, submerge them in a pot of rapidly boiling water for about 25 seconds, or until you see the skin just starting to pull away from the flesh. At that point, scoop out the tomatoes with a sieve and dunk into an ice bath. You'll see the skin start to peel back.
If the tomatoes have been blanched correctly the skin will peel off very easily. Just start at one of the points of the X and pull back.
Cut the tomatoes in half and lay, cut side up, on a pan lightly coated in olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and the secret ingredient, a little bit of icing sugar! For all these tomatoes I sprinkled about 3 tbsp of icing sugar over top.
Place pans in a very low oven and walk away. I put them in at about 225 F and leave them there all day. I would say a good 8 hours. You could probably even do this in the evening and leave them in overnight. I usually do this in the morning and take them out before I go to bed. You are basically dehydrating the tomatoes, and we all know tomatoes hold a ton of liquid, that's why it takes so long.
When they are done they are these delicious, extremely flavourful, sweet, explosions of the best tomatoey goodness you've ever tasted. :)
They are fantastic in pasta, salad, vinaigrette, quiche, pizza.... you name it!
Have a great weekend! Take some time to eat something delicious.