Oven-Roasted Whole Tomatoes

Whole, ripe beefsteak tomatoes
Olive oil
Coarse salt (sea salt or kosher salt)
Freshly ground pepper

This is a very flexible recipe. Stop the cooking whenever the tomatoes look like something you want to eat. Roasted a shorter time, the custardy tomatoes make an excellent side, served either warm or at room temperature. Let them go a little longer, and they'll get drier and be great for eating atop foods.

Heat the oven to 325°F. Slice the tops off the tomatoes, exposing the seed cavities. Holding a tomato over a bowl, gently squeeze it to release the juice and seeds. Use your fingers to completely clean out the cavities. Save the juice for another use.

Set the emptied tomatoes upright in a shallow baking dish. Over each tomato, drizzle about 1 tsp. of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and grind some pepper. Bake until the tomatoes are soft and collapsed.

Note: If you want, sprinkle minced garlic or chopped herbs into the tomato cavities before roasting.

Recipe by Ruth Lively. From: Vegetable Gardener: April 2001, issue #32 [archive.org]