There comes a week every August when the tomatoes win. They ripen faster than you can eat them, the bowl on the windowsill overflows, and the softest ones start to go. This is the recipe for that week. It is entirely vegan — no butter, no cheese, no honey — and it asks almost nothing of you beyond time.
Slow roasting concentrates everything an heirloom tomato already has. The water goes, the sugars caramelise at the edges, and what is left is jammy, sweet and savoury all at once. Even a slightly disappointing tomato comes out of the oven tasting like the best one you grew.
Why heirlooms are worth it here
Because there is nowhere to hide. With five ingredients and no dairy, the tomato is the whole dish. Thick-walled, low-water heirlooms roast especially well — the plum and beefsteak types hold their shape, while smaller varieties collapse into something closer to a confit. Mixing colours and sizes on one tray is no problem at all; just group the small ones together so they are easy to pull out early. (If you are new to open-pollinated varieties, see what makes a plant an heirloom.)
Ingredients
Serves 4 as a side, or fills one medium jar. Prep 10 minutes, roasting 2½–3 hours.
- 1kg ripe heirloom tomatoes, mixed sizes and colours
- 4–6 garlic cloves, unpeeled and lightly crushed
- 4 tbsp good olive oil, plus a little more to finish
- A small handful of thyme sprigs (oregano or rosemary work too)
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt and plenty of black pepper
- Optional: 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, or a pinch of sugar if your tomatoes are underripe
Method
- Heat the oven to 130°C (110°C fan). Low and slow is the whole point — hotter than this and you will scorch the sugars before the water has gone.
- Prepare the tomatoes. Halve the medium ones through the equator, quarter anything large, and leave cherry types whole. Arrange them cut-side up in a single layer on a large baking tray, packed snugly but not overlapping.
- Season. Tuck the crushed garlic cloves and thyme sprigs between the tomatoes. Drizzle over the olive oil, then scatter the salt and pepper. Add the balsamic or sugar now if using.
- Roast for 2½ to 3 hours. Do not turn them. They are ready when the edges have darkened and wrinkled, the flesh has slumped, and the tray smells sweet. Smaller tomatoes may be done after 90 minutes — lift them out and let the rest carry on.
- Rest and finish. Let them cool on the tray for ten minutes so they firm up. Squeeze the soft garlic out of its skins and stir it through, discard the woody thyme stalks, and add a final trickle of olive oil.
How to eat them
- Piled onto toasted sourdough rubbed with raw garlic — the simplest and still the best.
- Stirred through pasta with the tray juices and a handful of torn basil.
- Folded into a bowl of white beans or lentils with plenty of the oil.
- Blitzed with a splash of vegetable stock into a very good, very quick soup.
- Layered into a sandwich with hummus and rocket.
Keeping them
Pack the cooled tomatoes into a clean jar, pour over enough olive oil to cover completely, and refrigerate. They will keep for up to two weeks — and the oil left behind, steeped with garlic and thyme, is worth as much as the tomatoes. They also freeze well: spread them on a tray to freeze solid, then bag them up for winter, when a spoonful tastes like August.
A few notes from the kitchen
Do not peel them
The skins protect the flesh through the long roast and crisp slightly at the edges. Peeling gives you a wetter, less interesting result.
Use a tray that fits
Too much bare metal and the juices burn dry; too crowded and the tomatoes steam instead of roasting. Snug and in one layer is what you want.
Green and underripe tomatoes
End-of-season fruit that never quite ripened will still roast, but it needs the optional pinch of sugar and a little longer in the oven.
Every tomato plant we raise is grown from seed here at the nursery and hardened off in season, never forced. Browse the current collection to find a variety for next summer's glut.