Whenever I'm at my cousin Maymay's, this will make an appearance on her table, and yesterday was no exception. But it was only yesterday, as I looked at a bowl of this, sandwiched between the plate of crisp, browned bacon and the glazed chocolate scones I'd taken along as my contribution to breakfast (which we characteristically had at high noon), that it occured to me how very simple, yet very versatile this actually is. As I plunged the tines of my fork into one and popped it in my mouth, I was envisioning these plump, scarlet, glistening little bullets of flavour bobbing about in soup, tumbling around strands of spaghetti or linguine, smooshed into a herby, dimpled foccacia, stirred into steaming risotto or rice or riddling a fat, buttercup-yellow omelette. The uses for them are legion. And, nothing could be simpler. Trust a harried working mum to come up with something so wonderfully simple, that it's true brilliance is so easily, overlooked.

You could try this with halved or quartered bell peppers (capsicums), mushrooms or thickly sliced onions but I doubt they would have the same explosive flavour as cherry tomatoes. Go ahead and make a lot of this; be overly generous with the oil as it preserves the tomatoes and gives you the added bonus of having flavoured oil which you can dip bread into, drizzle over soup or salad or knead into bread dough.

The amounts given below are just guidelines so feel free to add more or less of anything according to your fancy. I made the quantity stated below today and stored them in 2 jars but after making pizzas for lunch and popping one after another into my mouth as I topped the rounds of dough, I now have nothing left. Tomorrow, I'll make a double batch. That should see me at least through to dinner. Scroll down to see the anchovy, roasted tomato and rocket pizza I made for lunch today.

Prep 5 mins   Cook 15 mins   Makes 2 x 250 g jars

500 g (1 lb) firm cherry tomatoes, wash and drain thoroughly
5 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped (or to taste)
1 tsp sea salt(or to taste)
1 tsp dried oregano
2/3 cup good quality olive oil

Heat oven at 200 C (390 F).

Combine all the ingredients in a non-stick baking tray and mix thoroughly.

Roast for 15 minutes. Do not overcook.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before storing in clean, dry lidded jars.

Refrigerate and eat within 5 days.

Lunch Today - Anchovy, Roasted Tomato and Rocket Pizza




Made with the lovely and gone-too-soon roasted cherry tomatoes.