This weekend was beautiful, warm but not hot, today especially. So I took a break from the kitchen.
I bought grapes, the first of the season! While I was sad to learn that my favorite kind, muscat, is not grown in this area, I was delighted to discover many other varieties that smelled like perfume and tasted as sweet as candy. Apparently a lot of grapes are grown up near Ithaca. That’s not so very far away from here, is it?
I saw a man walking nonchalantly by my favorite home on Manhattan. It’s beautiful, and he didn’t even bat an eye. Maybe he walks by it all the time, maybe he lives just a few doors down, maybe he has no appreciation for lush, gorgeous ivy covering a stately brick exterior. Or maybe I’m just particularly sensitive towards the aesthetically pleasing. All I know is, whenever I pass it, I have stop, sigh, and admire.
I went to Chinatown and bought boba, also known as bubble milk tea. Have you ever had it? It’s probably my favorite beverage in the world, un-eclipsable by anything else, alcoholic or non-. Truthfully, Chris and I make the trip to Chinatown often to buy boba, at least twice a week. Our favorite spot is located on Canal Street, but it’s too expensive for addicts like us. So we go to another spot that’s decent, but made all the sweeter by the fact that it has a 2-for-1 deal. Alas, Chatime we’ll have to reserve for special occasions.
I had two credit cards stolen. I believe the theft occurred in a coffee shop near NYU, the unlikeliest of places if you ask me. And the funny thing is, I’d scooted my purse in closer because I’d felt uncomfortable by how near the party behind me sat. The exact same thing had happened to me in Bolivia: a man who’d sat a little too close for comfort, me preemptively pulling my purse in. He’d managed to get away with about $7 worth of cash. The thief in New York had unsuccessfully tried making a $900+ purchase at the Apple store on both cards. It serves her (her? him? Would a man try to pass a card with a woman’s name on it as his?) right.
Before all this happened, on Friday, I roasted tomatoes.
I think I might’ve mentioned that I like my tomatoes raw, with just a touch of olive oil and salt. But in the case of cherry tomatoes, well, roasting them slowly on low heat, is a one-up.
The taste pierces. It’s so sharply sweet and intense, tomato condensed and condensed some more until all its taste is packaged in a shriveled, innocuous mass. For these tomatoes, I’m willing to turn my oven on, the oven that had traumatized me weeks ago, the oven that I’d vowed to part ways with until after Labor Day, until after temperatures dip below the 80′s once and for all.
A little goes a long way. I’ll be tossing them in salads, on sandwiches, on bagels, in pasta, whenever I need a boost of tomato action. Which could be anytime inspiration strikes, like when I walk by the fridge.
Yup, my weekend was punctuated by tomatoes. They’re a good thing to have around when I’m dealing with my credit card companies’ fraud departments on the phone. And for easing myself back into the work week.
Happy Monday, friends.
SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES
Ingredients:
Cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
salt and pepper
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees (Note: My oven only goes down to 300 degrees, so I had to roast them at this temperature.)
Cut the tomatoes in half. Toss with the olive oil (so they’re lightly covered) and lay the halves on a baking sheet, cut side up, along with the garlic cloves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Roast the tomatoes for 2 to 3 hours until they shrivel but are still juicy on the inside. (Note: Because my oven was at 300 degrees, I had to turn the oven off after about an hour and 15 minutes because the tomatoes in the corners had started burning. I won’t lose any to the carbonizing effects of heat!)
To store, let the tomatoes cool and put them in a covered jar in the fridge. You may need to cover them with some extra olive oil.
Loved this post, Linda. Just for dinner I’m about to have some baby heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and salt— definitely my favorite way to have them too. I have been meaning to roast them though, ever since I read about it in Molly Wizenburg’s A Homemade Life. I’m sure I’ll be getting to it in these next couple of weeks though. And I have to say, when I was a student at the University of Washington, I would get so mad when I would see some students (okay, okay, the frat-sorority students) walk right past some of the most beautiful buildings and landscapes. Maybe they do appreciate it, I really shouldn’t judge. But it just seems like sometimes, some sights deserve a break from your day, even if it’s just a moment.
Hahaha. Why do frat boys get to live in such beautiful mansions? It was the exact same way at my school.
Bobas are delicious. I live in SF, and boba tea shops are everywhere here.
I love slow-roasted tomatoes – although mine never turn out as “dry” and pretty as yours, so I use them for a concentrated-marinara sauce. Yours look gorgeous!
Thanks! More importantly, they’re very tasty. A little sweeter than usual, maybe a testament to how fresh and ripe they were?
And I used to go to the Quickly in the Tenderloin all the time. ALL the time! Miss it.
Amazing pictures you have there!
I’d love to have those tomatoes in my pantry all the time!
I know. If only tomatoes were around all year.
Your photos are wonderful! Do you photograph the buildings you admire?
I was lucky enough to purchase a large carton of cherry tomatoes at the Farmers’ Market this summer and I slow roasted about half. Some made it to the freezer to be used this winter, a few I put in olive oil in the fridge, but most I ate like candy. They were so sweet and yummy, just sitting on the counter begging to be gobbled.
Last night I blended half a cup of roasted garlic with half a cup of the tomatoes along with some of the olive oil each were stored in. I spread the mix on fresh, homemade Frenchbread. Divine!
Thanks Marcy! I do like to take photos of beautiful buildings—and luckily New York’s never short of them.
Cherry tomatoes are so versatile. Glad to hear you roasted them… and ate them straight off the counter.
Love this receip! I often make a similar dish. Where can I find that beautiful roasting pan?
Amy
I bought my pan off of eBay. Vintage cookware is becoming my new addiction.
you had me at Manhattan
I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice and agree with your love of aesthetics. I don’t know how a person could ever get used to walking by that stuff enough to not notice it!
Totally going to use this recipe. We have two nice sized bowls at home of cherry tomatoes- the last of summers bounty. I think this method would be a nice way to prolong the taste of summer.
ooh, what a great way to use up the last of summer produce. Hope you enjoy them! If I were less lazy, I would roast enough to last me through the year.