Better than snot and pips

These are going to be used in the next recipe but they're such a revelation that they deserve a post of their own.  Unless you grow your own or buy direct from a farm it's likely that the fresh tomatoes you get are a disappointment in the flavour department.

Or, as a friend of mine once described them, "all snot and pips".

So if you fancy making tomato a central powerful, flavour in a dish you can't really go much better than these little lovelies:

Slow roasted tomatoes.

You will need:

Tomatoes (duh).  I prefer to use baby plum tomatoes but any small to medium-sized variety will do.  Smaller is better and I wouldn't bother with full sized plum tomatoes or bigger.  They'll just take too long and be disappointing.  As to how many?  Depends on the size of your roasting tin and your patience.  I always do enough to fill my largest roasting tin one layer deep because once done, I can always find a use for them.

Olive oil (garlic-infused if you fancy it and depending on what you're going to use them for)

Salt and pepper

Patience.

Wash, dry and slice the tomatoes in half.  Choose the direction of slicing so that you achieve the flattest result.  (At this point I was going to try and spell this out in geometric terms but then I woke up again at the keyboard and deleted all that nonsense.  Work it out for yourself).

Lay out in a non-stick roasting dish, cut-side up in a single layer.  If you're a bit unsure of the non-stickiness of your dish lightly oil it first.  It doesn't matter if the tomatoes start off touching each other as they'll shrink quite quickly.  Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Place in a fan oven at 75°C.  No, that's not a typo.

Depending on the size of the tomato it will take about three hours for them to halve in size, start to look a bit wrinkly and intensify in flavour.  If you've gone for bigger tomatoes then this could well take a lot longer.  The key is to experiment and find a flavour and consistency that works for you and what you're going to use them for.

Once you're happy that they're now intense little flavour-explosions, turn the oven off and leave them inside to cool down.  Once cool they can be stored in an airtight container in a fridge for about a week.

Try not to keep "sampling" them.

A simple recipe that really shows them off:

Per person:

75-100g of spaghetti, cooked until al dente
A small handful of slow roasted tomatoes
A tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs (basil, flat leaf parsley, chives, oregano are all good)
A tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan
Olive oil (a generous drizzle)

If they're in the fridge, allow the tomatoes to come to room temperature while the pasta is cooking.  When it's ready, drain, return to the hot pan, mix the whole lot together and let the heat wilt the herbs and warm the tomatoes.  Be amazed at how these simple flavours combine with almost no effort at all.