Roasting Tomatoes

Why roast a tomato? Well, roasting tomatoes or any kind of vegetables intensifies their flavor and brings out their natural sweetness. It gives them a different texture from steaming or sauteeing and so much can be done with them after they are roasted. You can eat them as is or include them in your favorite recipe. The roastedness of the veggies just adds great flavor to any dish, in my opinion. When eating veggies as a side dish, I prefer to eat them roasted - they taste nutty and a little crunchy. For added flavor, top with some parmesean cheese and you have a fantastic side dish.

I roast tomatoes to include it in other recipes, I just love the intenseness of the flavor. My husband, Jim, doesn't care to much for tomato sauce, so I get that great tomato flavor by using a some roasted tomatoes in my recipes.

This is so easy to do. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Take however much roma tomatoes you want to roast, I've also used cherry or grape tomatoes - I also include some garlic.

Using a steak knife, remove the core from the tomato. Smash the garlic, remove the skins and place on your baking sheet (lined with foil for easy clean up) .

Slice the tomatoes - I like to slice it in half first, then hold the flat side (for more control) and slice from there.

Lay the tomatoes on your baking sheet and pour olive oil over it and the garlic. If I wasn't baking whole garlic cloves, I would've added chopped garlic. I also sprinkle on salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder - mix it up and spread out on pan. You can add herbs of your choice if you like. 

**Sorry - I missed taking this pic**

Bake in your oven for 25 minutes. Your house will smell like a gourmet kitchen - it was awesome!

The garlic got crunchy and real sweet - the flavor was different than roasting a whole bulb of garlic.

After it cools, use as desired. I made my Peppers Casserole with this - you will have to come back for that recipe, I'll have it up this weekend.

Happy Roasting!!