Roasted Tomatoes and Tomato-Jam Sauce

I love tomatoes and can't wait until I have my own garden to grow plenty of vine-ripened varieties in! In the mean time, I try to pick out the ripest once from the supermarket.


Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients:
6 ripe tomatoes (cut in half with seeds and juice spooned out)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Topping (such as Italian herbs, fresh basil, half a clove of garlic in each half etc)


Method:
Put the tomatoes in a baking try with the skin side down and drizzle with olive oil, pepper, salt and add your herbs or other seasoning.
Bake for an hour at 180'C.
The tomatoes may have become smaller and their taste will have concentrated. Their useful shape allows you to fill them with Chevre/Chevin or some Buffalo mozzarella (if you used Basil leaves). Because olive oil is so delicious you can always add a glug over the top and a small splash of balsamic vinegar as well. The tomatoes can be served hot or cold and can be eaten simply as they come out of the oven.


Tomato-Jam Sauce
Ingredients:
1 tsp salt
2tsp sugar
2 tsp chilli chutney
Pepper
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Juice and seeds of 6 tomatoes (scooped out)
1 tsp cornstarch/ mazina


Method:
Add all the ingredients (except mazina) into a small saucepan and once it starts boiling add the mazina stirring constantly. Once mixed in you can leave the mixture to reduce until it's thick and almost jam-like. It will also thicken as it cools, so keep that in mind.
This can be used for finger foods such as bites of crusty bread with cheese, or simply eaten as a spicy jam.