Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Homemade Life

I was searching for photos of slow roasted tomatoes. I made them last night using Molly Wizenberg's recipe from her book,
and it seems that I am the last one either have read the book or to try this recipe. It's an old hat recipe around the food blog world it seems but since I am not a food blog I don't feel like such a loser.

This is the basic recipe:
about 29 Roma tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Ground coriander
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Wash and dry tomatoes, trim away the stem end, and halve them lengthwise. Place them in a large bowl, and , using your hands, toss them gently with the oil. Arrange them cut side up on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and ground coriander, about a pinch of each for every 4 to 6 tomato halves. Bake until the tomatoes crinkle at the edges and shrink to about half of their original size, 4 to 6 hours. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool to room temperature. You can store them for up to a week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Now. didn't use coriander because I didn't want that in my pasta sauce and I kind of wung it with the oil and salt but they turned out great and my house smelled like a fresh summer.

The first few chapters of the book really bummed me out because many of the recipes did not appeal to me but all of a sudden-BOOM!-I couldn't get enough and I found myself bookmarking every recipe. I have tried now two of her recipes. The cherry and goat cheese salad and the slow roasted tomatoes. and both times I was frazzled but having fun. When I only had W, planning dinner kept me sane. I would plan our meal and then J would come home and he and the Little Buddy would hang out in the kitchen while I cooked. It's a bit harder since the Holy Terror has come along but I have tried to find new things that inspire me to cook and I have to say that The Homemade Life has done just that.

Now, the slow roasted tomatoes are delicious. and I should have just eaten them as they were with some fresh mozzarella, basil and a baguette but I got a wild hair and pureed them with olive oil, garlic, basil and pasta water to make a sauce. It was tangy and delicious but the consistency of the sauce would have lent itself better to a sandwich smear. So although she the author gives suggestions about doing different things with them, if I were you I would use them as is.

No comments: