
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


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!
Can you store these and if so for how long?
Yes! I’ve stored them for up to 10 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
What’s the oven temp?
Oops – good catch! They’re slow roasted at a low temp – 300ºF!
Ive rated plenty offered green large pearl tomatoes with garlic and oil to make pasta sauce or marina. I am assuming I can do the same with these large green pearls who have run out of sunlight in Washington State. I successfully frozen 20 batches of the red.. Any reason you think these green guys won’t be able to be frozen after roasting and putting them in Vita mix to incorporate their skins into the sauce?
Whoops need to proof read. I have “roasted” not rated plenty of RED Pearl tomatoes….CJ
I think that would turn out great!
Can you freeze this?
Absolutely! I freeze in a Ziploc bag, removing as much of the air from the bag as possible.