Well, tomato season is just about over (in the Bruser backyard anyway…thank goodness we can still buy them at farmer’s markets!)  But back about a month ago, I had so many cherry tomatoes I didn’t know what to do.  I remembered that my stepmother-in-law (yes, you read that right…she’s actually my father-in-law’s wife, not technically a mother-in-law, but I love her just the same.  Really.  I am one of the lucky ones who has not one, but TWO, wonderful mother-in-laws!!)  Okay, where was I?  Oh…I remembered a roasted tomato/olive oil/basil/goat cheese appetizer she had served.

I dug her recipe out of my recipe file and had a hard time deciphering my own writing, so found something similar at Smitten Kitchen and sort of combined the two.  It’s really easy and you can make it with as many tomatoes as you have.  I made a huge batch, just used what I needed that night, poured the extra in a jar, put it in the fridge, and had a second easy-just-pull-it-out-of-the-fridge-spoon-over-goat-cheese appetizer!

Slow Roasted Tomato & Herb Goat Cheese Appetizer

INGREDIENTS

Cherry, grape or small Roma tomatoes
Whole gloves of garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Herbs such as thyme, basil or rosemary (optional – I used rosemary)

Goat cheese log

Crackers or sliced baguette

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry or grape tomato crosswise, or Roma tomato lengthwise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.  And don’t throw out the roasted garlic cloves!

From here, you have a few options for serving.  You can let them cool a little, spoon them over goat cheese, sprinkle with thinly sliced fresh basil leaves and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Or let them cool, put them in a jar, cover them with some extra olive oil, throw in the roasted garlic cloves and whatever herb you used and keep them in the fridge for the next time!!