grape/cherry tomatoes

[ilfan96]

I have a boatload of them and more on the way! What can I do with them,besides roasting them? Sandi, when you roasted yours how did you do it? I am just curious as to what else I can do with them. If roasting is it, then a roasting I will go.

[brayg]

Well, we just keep ours in a bowl on the table and they manage to disappear. They are a great, portable snack.

[countrygal]

I agree. We just like to snack on them...

[Sandi]

Ooh - yummy
We have two bowls on the counter (pear yellow ones and little round cherries that are so plump they pop when you barely touch them). The skins can be a little tough right now. I suspect the drought has something to do with it because we picked them from the same vines not a month ago and they weren't like this.

Anywhoo.

I use a sheet pan with about a half inch lip all the way around. If you don't have a good sheet pan, you can use a 9X13 just as easily. I used a 425 degree oven last night because I wanted it to go faster - my original recipe called for 325 and it took an hour. At 425 I'd guess it takes maybe 30 minutes, tops?

So, I washed them, then drizzled olive oil on them and ground some sea salt and cracked pepper right on top, tossing to coat. You can also sprinkle with some balsamic vinegar (I used a balsamic glaze called Blaze). If you are going to save them and eat them soon, you can roast garlic along with it. Because garlic has a tendency to burn and get bitter, I cut the end off a large grape tomato and put a peeled garlic clove inside. This gives it a nice barrier so it doesn't burn against the heat of the pan.

Then you just pop them in the oven. You'll hear them start to burst and sizzle. They are soupy and liquidy at one point, but it starts to reduce down and gets gooey and thicker over time. It's a good idea to stir it at least once halfway-through - maybe twice.

That's it. You can add some fresh torn basil leaves if you have any at the end - after they're out of the oven - and it's DELISH. We also used lots of pecorino cheese and put it on pappardelle pasta (a wide, flat egg noodle).

It was an adaptation of an Emeril recipe

[Sandi]

and, if you don't want to roast them, you can skewer them (carefully) and grill them with other veggies or eat them raw (halved) tossed in a light pasta - like angel hair - with some olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil. Yummy.

[ilfan96]

Yummy, Sandi! Thanks!

My dh and I love to snack on them. The kids not so much. We have them growing and ripening faster than we can eat them at this point.

[Marina]

They are yummy halved and tossed into cold mayo based salads too, like chicken salad or pasta salad.

[Kerri]

You could dry them to store over the winter. Or freeze them individually and put them into ziplocks when they're solid. Or can them. Or make salsa. Or make a tomato salad with squashed baby tomatoes, crushed garlic, fresh basil or other herbs, sea salt, olive oil. Fantastic!

[xt]

You mean they actually make it into the house? Man, we eat the grape tomatoes right off the vine - they never get indoors.

Of course, I'm on a handful-of-grape-tomatoes-plus-10-more-medium-maters-a-day diet right now. They're just so yummy.

[mamabear]

Mine are dead. I had hoped to have such problems this year! The tomatoes we get from our CSA are not terribly plentiful, and are very basic. I'm so sad.

Anyway, what I was planning to do with a glut of cherry tomatoes, was to halve them and dehydrate them, then store in jars. If you don't have a dehydrator you can put them on a cookie sheet in the oven as low as you can get it.