Oven Roasted Tomatoes With Olive Oil

At its heart, all great cooking is alchemy. We’re transforming basic elements into something greater than the sum of their parts. Take these oven-roasted tomatoes with olive oil for example. We use low heat and lots of time to turn the simplest of ingredients (only tomatoes, olive oil, and salt) into complex little flavor bombs. Use these roasted tomatoes to up your caprese game, pile them on a baguette, toss them with pasta, or eat them straight off a fork. Jump straight to the recipe!

Oven Roasted Tomatoes Preserved in Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Vegan, Gluten Free, Paleo, Whole30 Approved

On a Friday morning in early August, I pull off the interstate and onto a little road that takes me to the heart of one of the most fertile valleys in California. You may not know it by name, but the Capay Valley is home to dozens of farms and ranches producing everything from watermelon to wine to wool to walnuts. On this particular day, I’m here to meet my friend Nicole Rogers, Director of Marketing and Communications for Nugget Markets. We’re meeting on the land of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for a tour of Seka Hills Olive Oil.

Corrin of Seka Hills takes us out to see grove after grove of olives. Native Americans have been living here in the “blue hills” of Capay for thousands of years, and there’s no question as to why. I was gob smacked by its beauty. I was also privileged to visit a ceremonial site, check out some of the artifacts found on the properties, and I even made a horse friend!

While the people of Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation have been here for ages, the olives are pretty new. In 2008, the tribe planted its first arbequina olives, and Nugget Markets was among the first buyers. Their relationship has grown over the years, and now every Nugget Market carries olive oil from Seka Hills. Upon tasting the olive oil, there’s no question that Nugget made a wise choice!

I knew I wanted to do something really special with this incredible olive oil. I was inspired by the relationship of Nugget Markets and Seka Hills, and so I thought I’d highlight one of my favorite culinary relationships—tomatoes and olive oil.

So that’s how these oven roasted tomatoes in olive oil came to be—relationships- magic- alchemy…

With heat and time, juicy summer tomatoes become shrunken, dark, and caramelized at the edges. What was bright and fresh intensifies into something rich, velvety, deeply flavored, and complex. The magical thing is that there is nearly no effort required on the cook’s part to make these oven-roasted tomatoes.

While they’re amazing for eating right away, I’ve taken to packing them in small jars topped with olive oil and keeping them in the fridge for a couple of weeks or storing them in the freezer. Because although fresh tomatoes are abundant this time of year, they’re also ephemeral. Days get shorter, summer wanes, leaves turn, and the local tomato disappears.

As autumn turns to winter, and I think I can’t stand one more butternut squash this or brussels sprout that, I hungrily reach for the jars of tomatoes I’ve packed away.

This post is sponsored by the kind folks at Nugget Markets. While I have been paid for this post, the content and opinions are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make The Tomato Tart possible.

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Oven Roasted Tomatoes With Olive Oil

Rating  5.0 from 3 reviews

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  4 hours

Total time:  4 hours 10 mins

Serves: 1 quart

This recipe is really a very loose set of instructions. The key, here, it to truly focus on the ingredients.
Nice tomatoes, sea salt, and really fantastic olive oil will make this simple dish remarkable. Your cooking time will vary depending on the size of your tomatoes. With a golf ball sized tomato, your cook time may be only three hours and with a baseball-sized one, it will be closer to five.
I encourage you to taste- starting at about 2 hours. I love these best when the skin is chewy and a bit brown at the edges but the insides are totally soft and stewy.
I usually do 7 to 10 lbs at a time. 5 lbs will yield one quart.

Ingredients

• 2.5-10 lbs of tomatoes. I usually do 7 or 8 lbs at a time.
• Sea Salt
• Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and arrange tomatoes cut side up. Sprinkle generously with sea salt. Brush with lots of extra virgin olive oil.
2. Roast in 250º F oven for 2-5 hours depending on the size of the tomatoes and desired doneness. Rotate the baking sheets every hour or so for even cooking and caramelizing.
3. Once cool enough to handle, pack into clean mason jars and cover with olive oil. Will keep in the fridge for two weeks or in the freezer for at least six months.

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