Slow Roasted Green Tomatoes

I aspire to be the meal planning type. You know the profile — that person who shows up to the grocery store or market knowing exactly what they will feed their family for the next 5 days and strictly adheres to their predetermined list. Those people seem very organized and probably also make their bed every day. 

But alas, I am not that person. Especially in the summer, I find myself distracted by some of the more interesting items at the farmer’s market. If it doesn’t usually have space on a grocery store shelf, I will probably buy it — garlic scapes, lemon cucumbers, purple peppers, you name it! This past week, green tomatoes caught my eye. They were super cheap so I bought a lot of them. I had never cooked with them before, but surely my collection of cookbooks and the vast knowledge of the Internet would assist me, right? Right?!

Wrong. Though there are a lot of ways to use these underripe little beauties, save for the cornmeal-coated-and-fried version, none of the recipes I came across really appealed to me or needed too many additional ingredients. So, I tossed them with a lot of olive oil and roasted them in a low oven, the whole time thinking about how I could use them once they were cooked. The results were… amazing. 

Here are a few uses for these slow roasted green tomatoes and/or the resulting infused olive oil:

• Top a bowl of rice with a scoop of green tomatoes and a fried or softboiled egg
• Make a unique vinaigrette with the leftover oil – 3 Tbsp oil + 1-2 Tbsp vinegar + salt and pepper = magic
• Bake them into a frittata or strata
• Mash the roasted green tomatoes and garlic cloves together, then spread on toast
• Stir in a little white wine vinegar and use as a topping for grilled chicken or pork
• Add them to a pot of cooked black beans

Slow Roasted Green Tomatoes

Slow roasted green tomatoes are a perfect addition to… just about anything.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• About 1 lb green tomatoes 5 small or 2 very large
• ½ cup olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves peeled
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Trim any stem off of the tomatoes, then dice into ½” pieces and place them in a baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer, but not so large that they aren’t cozy.
• Add the olive oil, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, and a big pinch of salt and pepper to the pan with the green tomatoes. Stir to make sure everything is evenly coated.
• Roast for 60-70 minutes or until the tomatoes easily collapse with a little pressure from a fork. Drain the oil but save it for making salad dressings, sauteing vegetables, or for storing any leftover roasted tomatoes.
• Use your newly roasted green tomatoes however you like: spread them on a piece of toast, toss them with a little pasta and the reserved olive oil, or add them to a rice bowl. Enjoy!

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