Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Summer is coming to an end but if you're lucky, your tomato plants are still yielding sweet fruits. Cherry tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes are dropping in price, as the final harvest takes us into fall. We had three cherry tomato varieties this year, that yielded us with far more fruit then we could snack on.

So when life gives cherry tomatoes, make this no fuss sugo. My favorite thing about this recipe it that each ingredient is highlighted through the simplicity of the dish.

Ingredients

2 baskets or 4 cups of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large shallot, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon of butter, shaved

1 tablespoon or drizzle of good olive oil

1 teaspoon of coarse salt

1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon of fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons

A baking dish that will allow the tomatoes to lay in no more than double layer

Optional: 2 tablespoons of chicken stock

1. Preheat your oven to 425F
2. Toss the halved cherry tomatoes and shallots in your baking dish with the salt and pepper.
3. Shave thin slices of butter on top and drizzle with just a bit of olive oil.
4. Bake for 30 -45 minutes, until the shallots brown and the top layer of tomatoes get brown around the edges.
5. Put half of the mixture into a food processor and puree. In order to thin out the sauce a bit, you can drizzle a bit of olive oil, or a couple tablespoons of chicken stock.
6. Mix with the remaining of the tomatoes, basil and toss with pasta of choice. I made this with the herbed gnocchi.
7. Optional: grate parmesan over it.

Yes, that is a dirty fork. I started eating this before I remembered to take the picture. Oink! Oink!