Tomatoes

The one thing I will miss the most about summer is a perfectly vine-ripened tomato. Sure there are hothouses nowadays that grow tomatoes year round, but there is just something about a ripe, juicy, bright red tomato that can't be found in any season but summer.

As the day gets dark earlier and the air gets crisper even here in sunny California, I realize that the days of flavorful summer tomatoes are coming to an end. I found some beautiful cherry tomatoes and decided to oven-roast them--further concentrating that phenomenal flavor and turning them into tiny precious morsels of tomato-y goodness.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

- sweet cherry tomatoes

- olive oil (basil infused)

- dried basil

- ground fennel seed

- sea salt

- fresh ground pepper

- minced garlic cloves

- red pepper flakes

This recipe is not exact--I have no measurements because it just depends on the amount of tomatoes you want to use. Basically, just to the following:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. cut tomatoes in half--use whatever kind of tomato you can find that is a pleasing shade of red (I prefer cherry or a nice roma tomato)--and place on a cookie sheet, cake pan...anything to put in the oven!

3. drizzle with olive oil--I had some amazing basil flavored olive oil that I carried all the way back from the culinary mecca that is Paris but normal olive oil would work just fine

4. sprinkle with dried basil, ground fennel seed (I ground my fennel seed using a rolling pin because I didn't have a mortar and pestle), salt, pepper, minced garlic, red chili flakes

5. Place in oven and roast for 15 mins, reduce heat to 300 and roast for another hour

Voila! delicious oven-roasted tomatoes! I put them on pita chips with a little bit of fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. Each bite was a flavorful party in my mouth!

Je les aime!

a bite after my heart ;)