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8/30/09

A peach of a day

Saturday was a 'peach' of a day.
Danny (as in Tropical Storm Danny) pelted the Maine coast with hard heavy unending rain and winds that began Friday night and didn't end until the wee hours Sunday morning. But never mind. Larry brought me flowers. And I had thoughts of slow cooking.
There was a chill in the air. My thoughts turned to indoor cooking. Slow cooking. Something that simmers for a long long while called to me. I like slow food. But you already know that about me. I liked slow food before it was a movement. Before it was trendy.

Tomatoes, ahhhhh tomatoes. Slowly simmered fresh tomatoes.
For today's recipe, I needed six large tomatoes and a generous amount of fresh herbs.

I cut the tomatoes in fat slices and gave them a little shower of good olive oil. Mixed them with freshly cut herbs from our container garden ~~ basil, both green and purple, oregano, thyme, parsley. Added a healthy dose of minced garlic and sprinkling of salt and pepper and sugar.

The whole luscious thing went into a large covered roasting pan in a 250 degree oven for six hours. Slow cooking. Yes.

It wasn't long before the aroma of tomato, garlic and herbs filled the house.
Here is the lovely concoction after 2 hours in the oven.
And at 4 hours into the process, it was nearly impossible to resist a taste. I didn't. Resist.
Six hours later. A slowly roasted tomato sauce just out of the oven.

This is a hearty sauce, intensely flavored. It will be tossed with a good pasta and some freshly grated cheese. Asiago or Parmesan. For for dinner, we added a salad of red and green leaf lettuce and frissee dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Red wine in glasses. A little bit of heaven.

8 comments:

india flint said...

oven roasting is the best way by far to begin a tomato sauce...

Pat said...

thanks, India. I agree. though it was my first time doing it this way. I had been roasting tomatoes at 300 for six hours to use with bruscheta. that was so good i made the leap......

justme said...

What a great idea! Looks and sounds just wonderful. I'm sure it tastes wonderful, too. I just picked a boat load of tomatoes from our garden. They're currently sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be used in some way. I'm definitely going to give oven roasting them a try. Thanks, Pat!

Pat said...

you won't be sorry. they are delicious. either in sauce (as in my post) or in as I did earlier and described in reply to India. let me know how you like them....

Anonymous said...

Looks yummy yummy....Donna

ACey said...

well it looks like I know what we'll have for dinner tomorrow night ...

Susan Schwake said...

sounds yummy pat! i will have to try this too... there is always better flavor from veggies in the oven, yet i never thought of tomatoes this way!
do you have a day free this week to get together? :) let me know... xo susan

Pat said...

Oh Acey and Susan, do try tomatoes this way! You will LOVE LOVE it.

Susan, I'll email you; would love to get together.

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