TLC Cooking "T is For Tomatoes: Umami Roasted Tomatoes"

Umami Roasted Tomatoes

Gregory Schaefer

YIELD Serves four.

It's easy and delicious. I love making this dish, it's comfort food for me. I usually take the recipe a step further than I did on the video and turn these tomatoes into a sauce all their own. See below for that extra step.

Somewhere between the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and the charred flesh of the tomatoes an intense and deep umami flavor comes through.

INGREDIENTS

Umami Roasted Tomatoes:
2 lbs	Roma tomatoes
2 tbsp	olive oil
1 tsp	salt
1 tsp	black pepper
2‑3	garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
1 tsp	brown sugar
1 tbsp	balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp	soy sauce
Zest of a lemon
Gregory's Umami Roasted Tomato Sauce:
2 tbsp	olive oil
2	cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 cup	minced shallots
1/4 cup	torn basil or arugula
1	batch of Umami Roasted Tomatoes
1/2 cup	dry white wine
1/4 cup	halved brine cured olives like Kalamatas

PREPARATION:

Umami Roasted Tomatoes:

Turn the broiler on. If you don't have a broiler just put your oven on the highest heat.
Wash and quarter your tomatoes. In a bowl, toss the tomatoes with all of the other ingredients. Mix it up with your hands. It will taste like a really good, funky salad dressing. If you like to bring the heat, add a tsp of crushed chili flakes.
Put all of this in an oven safe pan and broil them for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it though. If you have an adjustable broiler, keep the tomatoes a few inches away from the heat source. You want for the tomatoes to cook in the juices and brown (and even blacken) a little. Roast them.
These tomatoes are great on their own, on top of pasta, on a pizza, on toast, or in a salad. Shoot, anywhere you'd normally use a good tomato. But they also make a great sauce and here's my recipe for that:

Gregory's Umami Roasted Tomato Sauce:

Heat up a sauté pan over medium high heat, add the olive oil and when it's heated add in the garlic and the shallots. Use a wooden spoon to move things around and scrape the bottom of the pan.
Let these sweat and brown a little for about 3 minutes or so and add the torn herbs and the entire pan of the Umami Roasted Tomatoes, juice and all.
Pour in the white wine, stir and let all of the liquid reduce by about half. Add the olives, stir it up and toss with a pound of cooked pasta. I'd drizzle a little extra finishing olive oil and add some shavings of a nice pecorino cheese to this as well.

Watch the video: