Having an abundance of beautiful produce often means you have far more of it than you can eat before it spoils and so finding a way to keep enjoying it long after the initial pick is where preserving comes in.
I can’t resist beautiful tomatoes. While heirloom tomatoes like oxheart have always been my favourite and transport me back to my father’s home town of Quintodecimo in Marche, Italy, where my uncle grows them by the bucketload, plump vine ripened cherry tomatoes are my favourite type to roast. This is why when I decided to make confit tomatoes recently, I looked for the best vine ripened babies I could find and I found them at Fourth Village Providore on Danks St.
They were possibly the most delicious looking vine ripened baby tomatoes I had seen and after receiving two gorgeous Kilner Jars to celebrate their 175th anniversary recently, I just knew I had to buy as many tomatoes as I could carry, make confit tomatoes and bottle them. All so that I could slather them on thick cut toasted bread.
The process of making confit tomatoes is incredibly easy but the key is definitely the quality of ingredients. It will only taste as good as your tomatoes, so buying the best you can find is key. From there it is relatively simple, all you need is a little time at home to leave them in the oven. It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon recipe as it will have you sitting down with your feet up with about 5 minutes of active cooking.
There are many ways to enjoy these delicious juicy sweet mouthfuls and here are just a few ideas:
- Firstly, they are perfect squished onto bread with shavings of sharp cheese as I have done here.
- They are great as a super quick pasta sauce when crushed with some of the olive oil, then mixed with sicilian olives, capers and anchovies and tossed through cooked pasta.
- They can tart up a steak sandwich as a juicy sweet layer in the middle.
- Blend them with some of the olive oil for a simple and delicious salad dressing.
- Serve them on top of a finished risotto, or blend some and stir it through a risotto just before serving.
Confit Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1.5kg plump vine ripened cherry tomatoes
- 3-4 sprigs fresh oregano
- 5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 6-8 garlic cloves
- Olive oil, for cooking and preserving (about 1 cup depending on jar)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 130°Celsius (260°F)
Place cherry tomatoes in a baking dish. Top with garlic, oregano and thyme and drizzle with enough olive oil to coat nicely. Season with salt and pepper and place in the middle rack of your oven for 3 hours.
If you have very small cherry tomatoes, you may only need 2 hours. Mine were large so needed 3 hours - you still want them to be plump and juicy after cooking otherwise you will be making dried tomatoes.
Once the skin has dried and wrinkled and the tomatoes are plump yet sweet, set aside the tray to cool completely before bottling. To bottle, place in a few small jars, or one large jar and top with olive oil.
They will keep for two weeks in the fridge, or can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Chew Town was not paid to develop this recipe, but was gifted the two 175th Anniversary Jars from Kilner with thanks. To read Chew Town’s disclosure policy please visit the About page.
Don’t talk to me about gluts of tomatoes, we are getting better at managing our ‘harvest’ although always err on the side of caution so often have tonnes left over… This sounds superb, definitely setting this aside for next summer!
Wow, this sounds amazing, I can’t wait to try it!
These look amazing and your photos are stunning x
These cherry tomatoes look amazing! I need to make a big batch of this confit.
I’m literally drooling, can I have the whole jar please!? And your photography, wow! So beautiful.
wow!!! it looks amazing
I am glad you shared the recipe for confit cherry tomatoes….Thanks for sharing it
we call this achar here in South Asia… But whatever you call it it looks delicious…. Kindly count me in if there’s a free jar available :P.
saw it, tried it. Love them. I had some of my own (Canada, December and his own garden cherry tomatoes, yes some keep for a long time, some from southwest Ontario and some Mexican ones. And mine took 3 hours.
I am feeling hungry,,, can I have some of these tomatoes please
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I have been gardening tomatoes, and just in time, I found your blog post!
Never knew about this until now, but are there any other substitute for oregano?
Looking forward to your reply xoxo
You could leave the oregano out and just use thyme. Would work just as well.
@chris, Goddamn! you are right my friend. I’m literally drooling as well. I really wanna try this recipe.
@chris, Damn! my friend you are right. I’m literally drooling as well. So wanna try this recipe.
This looks amazing! I have been growing tomatoes in my garden and I think I just found the perfect recipe to use the last ones of the season 😉
Cherry tomatoes are rich in calcium, iron, lycopene, and vitamins A & C, you can easily grow them in a small pot in your backyard.
This looks so delicious, my only concern is that it’s supposed to be “preserved” but it only has a two week life, and we generally don’t freeze preserves because of the hassle of defrosting it when needed. Is there any way to extend its shelf life? That would be great.