What to do with all these cherry tomatoes?

Does anyone have an idea what I can do with about a half gallon of cherry tomatoes? My Sweet 100 has become quite an over-achiever.

Roast 'em! The basic recipe is:

Preheat oven to 400° F. Toss cherry tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes. If you roast with herbs, use dried, otherwise add after roasting.

Do a Google search and you'll find all kinds of variations. Very good as a side dish on their own, or add to cooked pasta.

These look good:
http://greenlitebites.com/2008/12/10/simply-roasted-cherry-tomatoes/
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/slow_roasted_cherry_tomato_bruschetta.html

pattpan

Thanks, Patti. Do you peel them first?

I have so many, I guess these would freeze well?

ander217 wrote:Thanks, Patti. Do you peel them first?

I have so many, I guess these would freeze well?

No, you do not need to peel them. I've never had enough to actually freeze, because we're always eating them up! I found a lot of info by doing Google searches. Here's a slow roasted version that is frozen for later use. I found it just now by searching for "freeze roasted tomatoes" :
http://ninecooks.typepad.com/perfectpantry/2006/09/roasted_tomatoe.html

Patti

Another version of slow roasted cherry tomatoes:

http://www.simplebites.net/slow-roasted-cherry-tomatoes-a-simple-summer-appetizer/



Patti

mine are in the oven right now from yesterday

chocolatepop wrote:mine are in the oven right now from yesterday

Me too! After posting about it, I started craving the taste. I have to be somewhere later this afternoon so I'm trying mine at 250 degrees for about three hours. I halved them, placed on a no-stick cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash Garlic blend. They are smelling soooo good.

Patti

Done! I started roasting them at 250 degrees, but turned down the oven to 200 after about an hour because I was afraid the garlic would burn. Put them in at about 11:30 a.m. and took them out around 2:00 p.m. I used about a quart of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Yielded about one cup after roasting...minus what we "tested." My husband tested more than I did!



Patti

I've peeled them or not peeled them for roasting. Depends on what you want to do with them. Yum either way! (Those look delicious, pattipan!)

I'm jealous. I have 8 almost ripe cherry tomatoes. It has been a slow summer for us. A few cherry tomatoes earlier. One Early Girl so far and one Beefmaster that should be ready in 3 or 4 days. This is out of 13 tomato plants

Patti...many of mine didnt make it to storage

For cherry tomatoes, I found that Matt's Wild Cherry was great and tasty. Its still producing but we eat them up right away every day, they are so good fresh. Actually, we all eat them like snacks in the evenings.
I've roasted my Black Cherry toms for the freezer.
I cut in half, toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and dried thyme.
Spread out on a cookie sheet with skin-side down.
Roast at 275* for 2 hours, but after 1 hour turn them over so they are now skin-side up. That way you can tell if you've turned them, if you put them all in the same direction.
After 2 hrs, remove from oven, allow to cool, place into double freezer bags.

These happen to be San Marzano Gigante 3s and Oregon Springs but I've also done my Black Cherry the same way.

Here are two bags, one with Oregon Spring toms and one with Black Cherry.
Same temps, same times, for all tomatoes, regardless of size.
I found that the Black Cherry were highly prolific along with the Yellow Cherry and both are very tasty, with the yellow being sweeter.

I have also gotten desparate not to waste my lovely tomatoes - I made home made tomatoe sauce - lazy me didn't skin them, but I made a puree of cooked tomatoes first - cooked them on the stove top for ~30 min, then put them in the blender, then pushed them through a strainer to get rid of the thousands of seed and the little bits of skin, then used that as the tomato portion of my home made sauce. I have a recipe (from all recipes.com) for a sauce that uses zucchini as well which was good because I had some left overs, along with left over peppers and chillis. It was fabulous in eggplant parmasan which I also had extras of - new fav recipies I will put the link for the 2 recipes - although the sauce didn't cook for as long as suggested - seemed like overkill to me - but that is my personal preferance...

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fresh-Spaghetti-Sauce/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggplant-Parmesan-II/Detail.aspx

Option 1) Halve them, then toss with some *really* good Feta and a chopped cucumber, and dress with a little olive oil and oregano. Salt and pepper to taste...and a little sliced red onion if you like.

Option 2) Halve them, then toss with some *really* good fresh mozzarella (the kind that's shaped like a ball and packed in water), some good olive oil, some chopped fresh basil, and a minced clove of garlic. Salt and pepper to taste...and a little sliced red onion if you like.

Whichever of the above you choose: Eat it with a fork....pile it on some slices of toasted French bread...throw it over some cooked couscous...even toss with some just-cooked pasta (the Italian one is really good this way...don't heat the "sauce", as the heat of the pasta will warm the tomatoes for you...then sprinkle with some fresh grated Parmigianno).

Option 3) Make a super-sweet salsa.

Option 4) Pop 'em like candy.

Option 5) Slice the tops off, dust 'em with some fresh-grated Parmesan, and slide under the broiler for a few minutes.

Option 6) Wrap each one in a small section of Prosciutto. Bet you can't fill a platter of them, as you'll eat them as fast as you get 'em wrapped.

Thanks a bunch. All of these ideas sound wonderful. LaFee, my mouth is watering after reading your post! I love tomato caprese but I never thought about turning one into sort of a chopped salad using cherry tomatoes.

Megan, you said sometimes you peel them and sometimes you don't depending on the planned usage. Can you elaborate, please?

We made an unexpected trip to visit my MIL yesterday and I took her about a quart of cherry tomatoes, but I see this morning that we will easily replace those with today's picking. So after making lunch with one of LaFee's ideas, it will be to the oven with the rest of them, I think.

ander217 wrote:Megan, you said sometimes you peel them and sometimes you don't depending on the planned usage. Can you elaborate, please?

When I've roasted tomatoes for freezing, I've peeled them. I was using store-bought tomatoes and the skins seemed tough to me. I don't have a food mill, so I'd peel them and try to pick out the worst of the seeds by hand.

When roasting them for fresh use, I tend to leave the skins on. I like how they tighten up around the flesh inside and blacken a bit. I've tried freezing them that way and it just isn't as good once it's thawed.

Now that I've got heirloom toms (joy!)... if I have enough left over to put up, I may try some with the skins and some without. I'd prefer to keep the skins for the vitamins, if possible. My Cherokees are just starting to come in and oh wow are they tender!

Thanks, Megan. I've always peeled my tomatoes for freezing, but I was hoping maybe I wouldn't have to if I roasted them. My cherry tomatoes have thicker skins than large tomatoes so I guess I'd better do it. If I blanch them it shouldn't be that hard to pinch them out of their skins.

I'm off to get to it.

Thanks, everyone.