Roasted Roma tomatoes are one of my wife’s favorite snack foods – and one of my favorite cooking “projects.” They are low effort but take some time so when I know I am going to be around the house on a weekend day I often make up a batch.  The ingredient list is quite should and the only thing you really need is a bunch of patience. The star of the show here is most definitely the roasted tomato so starting with good ripe Roma tomatoes is key.  You will need:

• 3+ pounds of Roma tomatoes
• Good Olive oil
• Garlic
• Kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• A sheet pan

No need to preheat the oven on this one the tomatoes go in so low that it doesn’t matter.  Step 1 will be to wash the Roma’s really well then dry them by hand.  You want to make sure you get any impurities off the fruit before starting.  Cut the tomatoes in half-length wise. Salt the cut sides of the tomatoes generously.  Arrange them on a sheet pan cut side up, and let them sit with salt on them for 10-15 minutes, grind some pepper over them. After that coat the tops with olive oil and put them into a 200 degree over for a looooooooooooooong time (at least 5 hours) until you get something that looks like this:

Picture here.

Once the tomatoes are ready it is time to make some garlic oil to back them in.  This is another quite simple process – and you can make as much as you want.  Generally I make about 1/2 cup per sheet pan of roasted Roma tomatoes made.  Peel and slice 5 cloves of garlic per half cup of olive oil.  Drop them into the oil and heat until the garlic starts to sizzle.  Remove from the heat and let it cool. Once the tomatoes and oil have cooled to room temperature pack them together in a glass container. Packed in the garlic oil these will keep for at least a week.