By Martha Rose Shulman
- Total Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Rating
- 4(331)
- Notes
- Read community notes
When you roast cherry tomatoes, they caramelize and become even sweeter. This dish was inspired by a huge pile of roasted red and yellow cherry tomatoes that a friend served at a dinner party recently; they were drizzled with diluted pesto and placed alongside a luxurious mound of burrata. You can serve these as an appetizer (have napkins close by) or side dish, or tossed with pasta. You can easily multiply this recipe, but you won’t have to use much more olive oil to coat the tomatoes. This gorgeous emerald-colored oil is a condiment that you can keep in your refrigerator for up to a week. Keep it in a squeeze bottle, and drizzle it over tomatoes, fish, chicken or other vegetables. It looks beautiful on a white plate, and a little goes a long way.
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Ingredients
Yield:Serves 8 to 10 as an hors d’oeuvre
- 2baskets sweet cherry tomatoes (can use a mixture of colors)
- Salt to taste
- A couple of pinches of sugar
- 3tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- About 1 tablespoon basil olive oil (see below)
- Salt to taste
- 2cups basil
- ½cup extra virgin olive oil
For the Tomatoes
For the Basil Oil
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
145 calories; 16 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 12 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 0 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 0 grams protein; 56 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
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Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the tomatoes in a baking dish large enough to fit them in a single layer. Add the salt and sugar, and toss together. Add the regular olive oil, and toss again. Place in the oven for 45 minutes until the skins have shriveled and just split; the tomatoes should still be still intact. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool.
Step
2
Bring a pot of water to a boil, and salt generously. Fill a medium bowl with ice water. Place the basil in the boiling water, and blanch for 15 seconds. Remove with a skimmer, and transfer to the ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water, then place on a clean dish towel and again squeeze out as much water as you can. Place in a blender with the olive oil. Blend one to two minutes until the olive oil is green and tinged with flecks of basil. Transfer to a squeeze bottle, and refrigerate.
Step
3
Arrange the tomatoes on a platter. Drizzle the bright green basil oil decoratively around and over them, and pour on any juices from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tip
- Advance preparation: You can make these tomatoes several hours ahead of serving. They will keep overnight in the refrigerator.
Ratings
4
out of 5
331
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Cooking Notes
Figaro
I use grape tomatoes for this since they're sweeter. I like to put some crushed red peppers in with the tomatoes while they are baking. They are really wonderful with small-medium pasta. Garnish with Percorino Romano or Ricotta Salata.
dimmerswitch
Made per recipe but without the addition of the basil oil because I was using this as a side for Melissa Clark's Baked Cheesy Wild Mushroom Casserole. Easy technique and good outcome even if you don't want the basil oil included. I think the little bit of sugar with the salt in this recipe intensifies tomato flavor. Drizzled the juices from roasted tomatoes over them after arranging them on serving platter. Made these a couple of hours ahead and they were delicious room temperature.
Joan Abnett
I also used grape tomatoes, found the slow cooking (much slower than I usually do) was ideal as the little tomatoes do not burst. Lovely flavours.
Judy Patterson
Take off the tomato stems before roasting. I made the mistake of leaving them on as shown in the photo and then had the tricky task of having to remove them after roasting.
enera
From the olive oil left in the pan, combined with wine vinegar, I made a vinaigrette used to marinated feta cheese and add to the tomatoes. Added a clove of garlic to the basil oil.
José
I made these today.
A big hit.
Pretty much followed the recipe exception didn't blanch the basil. I simply made a pesto in the mini-Cuisinart.
And drizzled that over the tomatoes before roasting.
kate
How big is a basket? A pint?
diane clause
I used store bought cherry tomatoes and roasted with garlic an extra 15 min but the skins remained too tough. Tossed the whole lot + some basil oil into the mini food processor including the oil from the pan. This made an excellent rich sauce! Used for pasta to rave reviews. will try over chicken next. Yum
Karin
Great with fresh pasta! I added a couple of cloves of garlic because I love garlic. Yum!
va
Can be served room temperature
Sandy
Wonderful, even with store-bought tomatoes and basil. In summer, when we have an abundance of both (so hard to keep up with the cherry tomatoes!), this will appear frequently on our table, both for ourselves and for guests.
Vicki
Made this as described in the recipe and served it over pasta. Delicious way to use the abundance of cherry tomatoes from my garden.
Esther
Delicious! I served it over pasta with burrata. Make sure to adequately salt the pasta water and put fresh ground pepper on top.
edmund mander
What is a basket? The tomatoes I get come either from the garden or in little plastic containers of various sizes in the supermarket. Never seen them in baskets.
Layne
It was outstanding. I added two garlic cloves, sliced, and loved the results. I served it with angel hair pasta which I swirled with a small amount of pesto (not the pesto oil in this recipe which seemed like a lot of work). Then I topped it with a couple of halved kalamata olives.
Nina
DeliciousI regularly make these tomatoes as a side dish or to add to pasta
Jill
Very good made as indicated without the basil oil.
Blud
I didn't find them cooked enough after 1 hour at 300 so I upped it to 350 for another half hour and in my view they were perfect, split, caramelized and softer. I've been putting them on everything, today an egg sandwich with some spicy mustard on toast.
Susansea
Has anyone made a bunch of this and frozen it?
Alanna
Love the basil oil especially. I've been putting it on everything this week!
Laura
I was excited to try this recipe to use the basil grown in my garden. The results were disappointing very bland just tasted like stewed tomatoes.
Tim Owens
used as base for a pasta salad... delicious.
Ashley
Delicious. Only used 1 can of white beans, added ~3/4 a cup of farro, 3 tablespoons of tomato paste and an extra cup of water to broth, and kale at the end
ric
My grandmother use to make something very similar. She would stuff her tomatoes with a little olive oil soaked bread crumbs. Before roasting them. I use to eat those up!
Susan
I was initially intimidated by the basil oil preparation process - don’t be, it took literally a couple of minutes to make. Plan to have as a side for filet of beef for Christmas dinner 2019. Delicious. I used large container of mixed color cherry tomatoes, followed recipe as written. Look nice against white serving dish - 1 layer.
Zaza
Delicious! I made the basil oil the day before serving and the tomatoes prepped in the morning of serving to roast later. This was my "base" for a luncheon first course topped with burrata. The unused roasted tomatoes are for another day as suggested by others.
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