I’m elbow-deep in roma tomatoes at the moment, but wanted to drop by with a few words on one of the ways I’m preserving these scrumptious gems. Long, slow roasting in a 200 degree oven. This treatment shrinks their mass, concentrates their flavor and transforms them into something savory and succulent.
It is so easy to do, I feel a little silly offering instructions. Wash, dry and slice the tomatoes in half. Lay them out cut-side up on parchment-lined rimmed cookie sheets, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Put in the oven and roast at 200 degrees (truly, no hotter than that) for 10-12 hours. I realize that sounds like an inconveniently long time, but I tend to do this overnight, timing it so that they’re finished when I get up in the morning. Works perfectly.
I don’t can these tomatoes (honestly, I don’t think you can). I simply cool them, freeze them on the cookie sheets where they were roasted, pack them into jars or freezer bags and store them in the freezer. Easy for year-round additions to pastas, sauces, salads and more.
Just one word of warning. They are so delicious that they may not make it into the freezer for storage. I took a cookie sheet’s worth to a potluck tonight and served them on top of baguette slices that had been smeared with goat cheese. One person told me that he doesn’t really even like tomatoes, but couldn’t stop eating these.
When you jar them do you cover with olive oil?
I don’t. I just pack them into small jars and freeze them.
Marisa, I recently discovered and have already made 3 batches of your marinaded dried tomatoes and LOVE them. I am excited to try this recipe and use in soup this winter as you suggest. Do you have any suggestions to modify this method to accommodate for large/medium vine tomatoes? My counters are covered with them and I am hoping to give this a go. Love your books and I point all of my friends and family to your recipes frequently, thank you.
I haven’t tried it with other varieties of tomatoes but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. They might need longer in the oven because they tend to be a little juicier than Romas, but otherwise the approach should be the same.
Waited until the final 2 hours, then added freshly snipped Basil, and Parsley. Find they are too delicate to add for the entire slow roasting. Love love love the outcome. Do encourage ALL to try this with your Romas. No blanching, No Peeling.
After 25 lbs = 1/2 Bushel my lazy is kicking in, so slow roasted deals with the final 21 big fat Romas sitting on my table 🙂
Hi Marisa -This looks fantastic. I have some extra Romas and I am going to try this one out over the weekend. Would it make any difference on the results if I cut the core out of the tomatoes?
They might cook a bit faster.
I’ve been using this system for a few years now,very pleased wih it.Grow my own plum tomatoes
or romas,have to watch though as some are bigger the others and may over cook
I like mine a little plump,great with goats cheese and small French bread.I should have 40-50
jars for the freezer.
Thanks again,
Byron-Canada
Great idea, took 10+ hours as you said and these are delicious;)! Thank you so much for sharing!
I have a batch going in the oven right now. I love this idea. A question though, do you have this linked to pinterest? I tried to pin it but couldn’t.
The post is pinnable, but for some reason, the Pin It button doesn’t appear when you hover over the images. If you have a Pinterest bookmarklet in your browser, you should be able to pin it. I also just pinned it and you and find my pin here: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/88172105180317984/
Thanks so much! I was able to pin from your pin.
So glad to help!
Just one quick question! how long do these last at room temperature, at refrigerator temp, and frozen???
At room temperature, they’re good for a couple of hours. Five to seven days in the fridge. And up to a year in the freezer.
I am going to try this recipe this weekend with the 25 pounds of roma tomatoes that I am getting. When I decide to eat or use the tomatoes that were frozen, is there anything I need to do to them? Do I have to take the skin off? Do I eat them frozen or thaw them in the fridge?
Kathleen, I tend to pop these directly from the freezer into soups and stews. If the skins bother you, you can certainly remove them. If you defrost the tomatoes for a little while, the skins tend to slip right off.
I make a variation of these – I start them the same way, but put them in a cold oven and crank it up to 400 degrees. After 20 minutes I turn the oven off and let it cool down without opening the door. The high temperature roasts the tomatoes just enough to caramelize them a little and make them even sweeter. After the oven’s cooled down I decide how much further I want to dry them and let them go at the lowest setting in my oven for several hours. I aim for a flat, nearly leathery texture that’s somewhat chewy. Then I freeze in ziplock baggies. To use I just snip them into strips with a pair of scissors and toss into sandwiches, salads, pasta, dressings, anything. They taste like tomato candy, and are so good in just about everything. 5 lbs of romas easily fit into a small ziplock baggie for freezing.
I tried making a batch without roasting them at a high temperature first, and by comparison they were rather bland tasting – the roasting adds so much depth of flavor to them!
Wow, that sounds like a fabulous technique! I’ll have to try it next time! Thanks! 🙂
As many others have experienced, I had extra romas to deal with last week. Sadly, mine were mealy and very unappetizing to eat fresh, but I didn’t want to throw them out as the taste was great (just a texture problem). So I went to the internet and found this site and decided I had nothing to loose by roasting them. Well, after roasting, texture was no longer an issue! These are fabulous! Friends came for drinks and snacks last night and everyone loved them (bruschetta with some grindings of parmesan). I thought my harvest was going to be a bust, but this recipe saved the day. My husband loves them so much, we bought 20# of “good” romas today at a farm, and he is going to roast them in his smoker. We’ll keep some in for an extra and add some hickory smoke to see how what that adds. Sound good to me! Again, thanks Marisa. This is a real winner.
Odd question here but do you start the 20 minutes when you turn on your oven or do you start it once it its 400?
I would imagine that the time would start once the oven had reached 400°F/204°C.
I make these too but I sprinkle on dried basil, dried oregano, smoked paprika
freshly ground black pepper and sea salt or kosher salt.Very yummy!
Once again, I’m making these. I’m so excited. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Have you ever tried to pressure can these roasted tomatoes in olive oil? I’d love to have small jars on hand over the winter months and for holiday giving. If possible could you recommend how long and at what pressure to process these in the small 4oz jelly jars and 1 pint jars?
I don’t think olive-oil packed romas are safe for canning. Everything I’ve seen recommends storing them in the fridge only. :/ Maybe make them fresh and attach a tag with instructions to refrigerate and dispose after a month? Or give them a batch of roasted and dried romas along with a small bottle of olive oil with instructions? That’s my plan, anyway, with a nest of dried pasta.
Awesome!! After reading all of the comments an being open minded to everyone’s experiences. I gave this a first time ever try. They turned out Awesome. like candy, had to make myself stop eating them. Am so very happy to have a great new recipe to add to my seasonal recipe box. Thanks to Marissa for a excellent recipe, execellent demo pic’s and all. Your recipe Rocks!! Thanks to everyone for your comments, because they do help be aware of possibilities, that could occur, but didn’t. 🙂
This is my second year doing these. I actually have been using the (over)abundance of sungolds and grape tomatoes that my husband deposits on the kitchen counter…ugh!! I do them like you suggest, but I drizzle a little olive oil, chopped garlic, and then lay rosemary, oregano, or whatever herb looks great by my back door that day. Since they are so much smaller, they only take about 3 hours in the oven. Thanks so much for giving me the idea in the first place! These are amazing to take out of the freezer all winter.
Im going to start these right now as I’m up to my elbows in Roma tomatoes from my garden this year! My only question is about the skins- if I use them in sauce what happens with the skins? Do you have to fish them out? S.
The skins peel right off of the frozen tomatoes.
These sound great! I was wondering if these will keep in the fridge if packed in olive oil. If so, do you know how long they’ll last? Thanks 🙂
Once they are roasted and frozen, how do you use them in cooking? I love this idea and we have over 100 tomato plants growing in our garden this year that I’d like to save in different ways. Thanks!
Okay, I can vouch for her-if they are ample sized, you can definitely leave them in over nite-you can’t believe how great your house smells! I noticed your tomatoes were facing up-I had a recipe in reverse-any difference? Also, the recipe I followed had me remove the skins-and then freeze- I don’t see mention of that in your recipe-do you take the skin off after taking out of the freezer? Does this help so they don’t get soggy? (Even soggy they are oh so delicious! Thanks for your assistance.
I’ve always done them face-up because it felt like the liquid evaporates better that way. And I don’t remove the skins before freezing. I find that the help the frozen tomato pieces retain their shape and that they’re really easy to slip off when it comes time to use them.
Making these now smell terrific
I got 3 delicious tomato halves out of 100 that WEREN’T burnt to a crisp. So disappointing. It’s really bad advice for first-timers to do this overnight. I left them in for 10 hours and they probably only needed 5 or 6. My tomatoes must have been a lot smaller than yours, but how am I supposed to know that? I’m really sad about the wasted food.
Emma, I’m sorry to hear that your tomatoes burnt. The reason I include pictures in these posts is to give you some idea of the scale of ingredient I was working with. I’m sorry you didn’t realize that your tomatoes were far smaller than mine, but I cannot account for every variable when I write these recipes. I present my method. It’s your responsibility to translate it your kitchen and the ingredients you’re working with.
I love drying my own tomatoes and then marinating them in olive oil. I store them in the fridge, they keep for about a month and the olive oil I use in my salad dressings.
Question for you. We just bought a bushel of romas from the farmer’s market. I am going to be making a Tomato/Apple/Chipotle chutney from some of them, but the rest I am going dehydrate. My question is, have you ever marinaded yours in oil? I buy the sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil all the time, and the small jars are just so expensive, I thought it would be a lot cheaper to make my own. If it shouldn’t be done, that is fine, I will just reconstitute when I need them in olive oil, but was curious if you had ever done it?
…Hello, I’ve been a follower of your blog for awhile now and came here today to see about what to do with our tomatoes that are coming in from the garden. I loved the thought of drying ’em but ours aren’t Romas, they’re mostly Early Girls, can I still use this recipe? If so, should I slice them or quarter them? Please help and thank you.
…Blessings :o)
I made these last year and my friends and family loved them – I quickly learned I’d made too few. This year I’m doing about 20 lbs worth and I’m using a basting brush to put the oil on.
So easy, tasty and my all around favourite!
Love your site!!!