Roastin' My Romas

About three months ago we took off on a cross-country trip in our RV.  We planted tomatoes, peppers, cukes and various herbs in our raised bed gardens, set the auto-watering system and hit the road.  We knew it was a gamble to leave these tender little plants on their own in late April.  Our gamble paid off...sort of.  While we were confronted with eight foot tall weeds when we returned a couple of weeks ago, we did find some treasure as we began to banish the weeds.

We could see tomatoes in the jungle so we weeded there first.  The Roma tomatoes were full of fruit and were already dying down.  This is because they are a "determinate" variety. The birds were busily enjoying them (the little peckers!), so I've just about picked them all, even the ones that were not quite ripe (they ripened nicely over the next couple of days in a paper sack).  The slicers, a combination of Early Girl, Big Boy and some heirlooms whose name I don't remember, are doing well and the birds have not started on them yet for some reason. Our cukes sunk without a trace, the peppers looked like they were the same size as when we planted them. The oregano, thyme and sage are still fighting to survive along with the weeds, the basil and chive did not make it.  I hope the survivors hold on until the temperatures abate somewhat, as I have no plans to weed in 90 degree temps!

I don't have nearly as many Romas as I would like, but that's what I get for taking the "set it and forget it" path with the garden.  I'll aim to do better next year.  Still, I had a paper Kroger sack about 1/2 full and needed something easy-peasy to do with them.  I decided to roast them with Italian spices and freeze them for future use.



To Roast:

*Spray or brush cookie sheets with EVOO and sprinkle liberally with spices of your choice. I used Thyme, Marjoram and Oregano (remember my Basil died during my trip) but you can vary this any way you like.

Sliced, cut-side-down on seasoned foil.

Wash Romas and allow them to dry.  Pull off any green leaves or stems that may still be attached.

Cut each Roma in 1/2 and lay, cut side down, on the cookie sheet.

A half-a-Kroger-sack filled up both of my large cookie sheets with 20 or so tomatoes left over.  I placed these "extras" in a shallow pan and froze them whole.

Place your cookie sheets in the oven and go do something else...for hours.  Depending on the size of your tomatoes, it will take 6-8 hours of slow roasting.  Enjoy as the aroma permeates your house.  ;-)

Fresh out of the oven.

Mine were not done until bedtime, so I set them out on the stovetop to cool.  I always get up more than once during the night, so during one of those breaks, I slid the cooled pans of tomatoes into my freezer.  This morning, I took them out and bagged them.  The two large cook sheets filled up one 1 pint freezer bag.  

I also bagged up the tomatoes that I froze whole.

Frozen solid and ready for bagging.

Either the frozen whole or frozen roasted tomatoes may be used in any sauce, stew or other recipe that does not require fresh tomatoes.  You can either leave the skins on the whole ones or thaw them and easily slip the skin off.  I usually keep skins on as I hear that's where most of the nutrients lurk and I don't use pesticides in my garden.

*I put aluminum foil on my cookie sheets and oiled that...next time I'll try parchment or even the bare pan.  The AL foil was a bit of a beast.

Tomatoes are a summertime gift that I can never get enough of!