This spring, we accidentally planted a couple dozen grape and cherry tomato plants that had volunteered in the compost bin. I imagined the plants were nice acidic large canning tomatoes and transplanted them everywhere! Imagine my surprise as a novice gardener when every tomato ripened as it reached the size of your thumb. Ha!

So many tiny tomatoes!!! With the abundance, we weren’t able to eat the little jewels quickly enough, and, I hate to say at times I dreaded the pile of fruit coming off the vines daily. My dogs were even picking and eating the ripe sweet tomatoes of the vine, and there were still more and more and…..well you get the point.

So, I experimented with an Italian inspired dish for my Italian-food-loving husband. Oh my goodness, this dish is so deliciously easy! The little tomatoes are very sweet and beautiful and become even sweeter as they bake and loose moisture. Not growing cherry tomatoes? Grape and cherry tomatoes can be found most grocers. I’m pretty sure that one or two of those store bought tomatoes made it to the compost bin and started our current tomato overload.

Two to three cups of small tomatoes will fit nicely into the bottom of a 10” iron skillet, and this is enough for a side dish for two or three people.

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, mixed small tomatoes or any of these. About 2 – 3 cups.

1/4 C quality olive oil

2 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

That’s it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add olive oil to an iron skillet. The size of the pan depends on the number of tomatoes you are cooking. Keep them in a single layer to roast evenly. Place washed and stemmed small tomatoes in the skillet, and roll them around to coat them completely with oil.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until they began to burst, wrinkle and caramelize.

Remove from oven, stir in minced garlic and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Your kitchen now smells wonderful! The tomatoes should have caramelized further, and the garlic just pushed this dish over the edge. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper, stir and serve!

Great and beautiful side dish (here shown accompanying left-over pot roast), or as an amazing crostini topping for your charcuterie board. We love these roasted tomatoes over pasta with slivers of Parmesan cheese. Also, you can mush them a little and use them as red sauce for your homemade pizza.

Optional: Add fresh basil to the dish during the bake. It will partner very well.

Hope you enjoy these roasted tiny tomatoes as much as we do!

Happy eating! Buon appetito!

Kim Orsini

Iron Maiden – Black Skillet Cooking