Roasted Roma Tomatoes

Original Recipe HERE

I wasn't sure how these were going to turn out.  I was practically salivating on the keyboard after looking at the pictures and reading the description.  However, I'm not a big fan of sundried tomatoes...and if these were anything like them, I was going to be really disappointed because so much anticipation had been built up.  Thankfully, they were incredibly good: very flavorful, an appealing texture, and easy to make - and eat.  We didn't do anything special; grabbing them with our hands and consuming each wedge whole was our modus operandi.  The entire batch was gone before the night was over.

A note about the cooking time: I had them in the oven for about four hours, but we spontaneously decided to visit a local park.  Not wanting to leave the oven running, I jacked up the heat to 400 for the 10 minutes it took us to get ready, and I turned the oven off completely just before we left.  When I checked after getting home two hours later, a few tomatoes were a little more blackened than others, but nothing was inedible.  So Husband's insistence we go do something fun as a family didn't spoil dinner.

Ingredients

10 to 14 Roma tomatoes

1/3 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

salt (kosher, preferably)

pepper

spices [I used oregano and basil]

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon sugar

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

2) Finely mince garlic cloves.  Add to olive oil and let sit.

3) Slice tomatoes into 8 wedges per tomato.

4) Arrange tomato wedges on baking sheet, skin side down.  Brush with garlic and olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, spices, and sugar.

5) Bake for 4-6 hours.  Can be stored in refrigerator.

Notes: Next time I'll use 1/4 cup olive oil because some of the wedges were too saturated with it.  I mostly solved that problem by putting them on a plate lined with a paper towel and patting them on top with another one.  Also, I'll try to plan ahead so that a consistent cooking temperature is maintained.

Kid Participation:

* Arrange tomato wedges on baking sheet

* Brush wedges with olive oil

* Sprinkle wedges with various spices and sugar