Slow food.....

There's nothing that smells as summery as a deep sniff of a handful of tomatoes, warm from the greenhouse. I love the smell of the plants, the fruit, the sunflower yellow flowers. This summer the tomatoes have been disappointing. Only half the plants have survived. None of the beefsteak tomatoes, only the tiny cherry red and orange ones have made it to August and even then they are no bigger than wine gums.

Most of the time I'm eating them off the plants while searching for cucumbers among their grow bags. But yesterday I decided to cook with them. This week I grabbed a mouthful of my bosses lunch off her desk....a salad with some slow roasted tomatoes in it. 100% delicious.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes........

About 20 cherry tomatoes
A drizzle of olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh oregano
1 small clove of garlic
fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 150'c. Place the tomatoes in a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil. Put in the oven for 2 and a half hours.

This is what they will look like after an hour.

After 2 and a half hours the tomatoes will look like this....not dried out and chewy but soft and intensely tomatoey. Take out of the oven. In a pestle an mortar crush the garlic, herbs, seasoning with a little olive oil and pour over the tomatoes. On their own they are amazing with some toast or toss through warm pasta or a salad. (See next blog post!)