oven roasted tomatoes

I came home one day last week with 5 lbs of roma tomatoes to oven roast. There is a great method of roasting them at a high heat (500 degrees) for 20 minutes. Just half them, remove the seeds & pulp and roast skin side down. I added a head of garlic (cloves crushed, still in paper) with some thyme and rosemary and drizzled olive oil over. Once cooled you can store them for up to a week refrigerated air-tight.

So with my tomato gold-mine I made a Roasted Tomato Frittata. I based this loosely on Mark Bittman's recipe.

1 baking potato, peeled & sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/2 large white onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick

4 eggs + 4 egg whites, beaten

8 oven roasted tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat butter or oil in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably nonstick (I used cast iron), and turn heat to medium-high. When butter melts, or oil is hot, add potato and onion and cook, stirring only occasionally, until potato is nicely browned on both sides. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, lightly beat eggs and stir in remaining ingredients.

When potatoes are browned, turn heat to low and wait a minute, then add eggs. If necessary, move solids around so they are evenly distributed.

Cook until frittata is set on edges, then transfer to oven and bake until mixture is barely set on top. Serve in wedges, hot or at room temperature.

Then with the rest of our oven-roasted tomatoes I made a simple spaghetti sauce. These tomatoes are so sweet, they really are irresistible and you may never want to buy bottled tomato sauce again. All you do is take your oven roasted tomatoes, a tablespoon of anchovy paste and blitz with an immersion blender. I added some of the water from the cooked pasta to thin out the sauce until I had a nice consistency. Served with grated parmesan, salt & pepper to taste - this was simple and wonderful dinner all of us really enjoyed.