There are two main reasons why I roast tomatoes. They both have to do with summer, by far my favorite season of the entire year.

When tomatoes aren’t in season, from the doldrums that are January and February to the anticipation in March and April, roasting gives them much-needed flavor.

You can always find tomatoes at the grocery no matter the month. We all know that peak tomatoes taste better than those flown in from other parts of the globe.

But sometimes you just need tomatoes in your life and it’s not August.

Now that we are post-Labor Day, I am looking for any and all ways to hold on to summer. How can I extend the shelf-life of those precious in-season tomatoes?

Of course my excessive tomato consumption continues. There’s no sign of it slowing down, but I am transitioning to preservation mode.

Roasting tomatoes is a year-round activity for me—to make tomatoes last  longer or to enhance their flavor when I make the mistake of buying them off season.

I use those roasted tomatoes in everything including in salads and pastas and on pizzas and toasts.

They are my desert island / can’t-live-without ingredient.

I am partial to roasted cherry tomatoes because they hold their shape when sliced in half and baked in the oven.

You can roast larger tomatoes cut into slices They are also very tasty. That might work better if you stir them into pasta, and you don’t mind when then fall apart.

Slow-roasted cherry tomatoes take time, but it’s really up to you depending how you like your tomatoes.

If you are patient and wait over 2 hours with them in the oven, they will turn out drier with charmingly wrinkled edges.

Maybe you like juicer little cherry tomatoes, then just keep your eye on them and switch off the oven before they loose so much of their moisture in the middle.

I store them in airtight jars in the fridge. You can also stash them away in the freezer.

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