Slow Roasted Tomatoes

The tomatoes should have been done long before we went to bed. But at 9:30 I realized the oven had turned off with the 6:00 PM power outage. Not a problem, I thought. What would McIver do? And I did it.

What Ms. McIver didn't consider was when the oven timer came to zero it would beep loudly until turned off. At 3:00 AM. And she would be the only one to hear it. I left the tomatoes where they were. Honestly, I couldn't have cared less.

The Petaluma Italian potato farmer who sold me the dry farmed tomatoes was succinct in what to do when asked how to freeze them. "I slow roast them shoulder to shoulder at 150 to 200 all night and forget about them." I kept trying to guess how long he slept.

What he didn't tell me was how fragrant the house would be with garlic and tomatoes in the oven all day but then I guess he slept through that part.

At 6:30 AM this morning I opened the oven again. The tomatoes were nearly too bright to look at, each bowl of skin a miniature sun, the edges puckered around placid seas of juice. I wanted to squeeze off a skin and taste but with minutes to the bus I covered the cookie sheet with a flour sack and jimmied it into the freezer.

Tonight I wedged the frozen tomatoes into ziploc bags. Next week I'll cook up a test batch. The cute guy's vote is roasted salsa with gifted jalapenos.

So far they're a success but next time I'm putting them in the oven before I go to bed just like the farmer suggested.