How to Roast Tomatoes? (Deliciously Sweet and Tart)

• Food: Roasted Tomatoes
• Writer: Nicolas Wilson
• Content-Type: Food Blog

Want to make your next pizza or pasta more flavorful? Toss in some roasted tomatoes! They’re chewy, tangy, and have an appealing umami flavor.

Have you tried roasted tomatoes before? If you haven’t already, I urge you to try this roasted tomato recipe before the summer is over.

While I enjoy using fresh tomatoes in dishes like pico de gallo, Caprese salad, and Panzanella, roasted tomatoes take on a completely other flavor profile. They lose moisture as they roast, and their flavor deepens.

They’re chewy and tangy as they come out of the oven, with a super-concentrated, powerful umami flavor. These adorable little fellows are impossible to resist!

Make sure you roast a large quantity because you’ll find a plethora of uses for them. We can’t get enough of them around here, whether on pizza, in pasta, or fresh from the oven!

How to Roast Them?

Fortunately, creating oven-roasted tomatoes is a breeze. Only olive oil, salt, and tomatoes are required. Choose small to medium-sized tomato varieties when selecting varieties. Cherry tomatoes are my favorite to roast, but grape tomatoes and plum tomatoes also work well. Waiting for them to cook is the most difficult part! To roast them, follow these steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 250°F and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet, cutting sides up.
3. Drizzle the baking dish with olive oil and season with salt before placing it in the oven. The tomatoes should be shriveled and caramelized around the edges after roasting. That concludes our discussion.

My cherry tomatoes took 2 to 3 hours at 250 degrees to become completely shriveled and brown around the edges.

The amount of time depends on the size and juiciness of your tomatoes; roasted grape tomatoes can be done in as little as an hour, while larger tomatoes will take longer.

I like to make a long, slow roast like this when I have the time to let them cook. However, there are times when I don’t have all afternoon to make roasted tomatoes.

When I’m in a rush, I’ll roast them at 300°F to help them cook faster, or I’ll start at 250°F and increase the heat to 350°F halfway through, once the tomatoes have started to wilt.

Regardless, they’re fantastic! Just take care not to overcook the tomatoes; if the oven is too hot, the tomatoes will explode rather than shrivel.

What To Do With Them?

Roasted tomatoes are a great compliment to pasta, salads, soups, tomato sauce, and more because of their concentrated umami flavor. Here are a few of my favorite applications:

• Serve with avocado, ricotta, or hummus on a sandwich or toast.
• They can be blended into tomato soup or pasta sauce.
• Bake them on a handmade focaccia baguette.
• In a salad, toss them in. Two of my favorite salads are this couscous salad and this eggplant salad.
• Make scrambled eggs with them.
• Toss them into a bowl of spaghetti.
• Make a huge vegetarian lasagna with them.
• Toss them on top of a slice of handmade pizza. On my favorite vegan pizza, I like to use them instead of sun-dried tomatoes!
• Take them out of the pan and eat them right away.

Roasted Tomatoes

Summer pizzas, pasta, and other dishes benefit greatly from the addition of roasted tomatoes. Cooking time will be determined by the size and juiciness of your tomatoes. Make sure they’re shriveled and brown around the edges before roasting!

Ingredients

• 3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• fresh thyme, optional

Instructions For Roasted Tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to 250°F and parchment paper on a large baking sheet.
2. Drizzle olive oil over the cherry tomatoes cut side up on the baking sheet and season with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme, if using.
3. Roast the tomatoes for 2 to 3 hours, or until they’re well shriveled around the edges. The amount of time depends on the size and amount of water in your tomatoes.

Notes

• I frequently increase the temperature of my oven to 300 or 350 degrees Fahrenheit midway through the roasting period to speed up the process. This allows the tomatoes to start dehydrating before roasting further. They will burst rather than shrivel if the temperature is too high too soon.