'Tis the (Early) Season for Tomatoes 🍅

Especially of the slow roasted kind

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One of the biggest challenges of living abroad doesn’t lie in the big hitters like not being able to speak the language.

It comes in a death-by-a-thousand-cuts sort of way. Everyday challenges brought about by small differences in culture. Differences that would be far more manageable in your own country where you actually understand social cues.

So when I sent my husband out to buy a small number of cherry tomatoes for dinner and he came back with two kilos of them, I was hardly surprised.

Apparently our local grocers — despite this never happening in the six months we’ve been going there — picked the tomatoes for him rather than letting him do that himself, and imposed a one-kilo minimum order. Somehow, he came away with two.

Without enough Portuguese language — or indeed the will for conflict — he accepted the two kilos, paid his €2.80 (I’ll never get over the value of vegetables here) and brought them home.

Fresh from the grocers

I think he thought I’d be annoyed but I was delighted. Two kilos of cherry tomatoes for me to develop into early Summer recipes? What’s not to like?

I did what every sensible cook does with early Summer tomatoes and slow roasted them.

First for flavour and second because tomatoes are not quite in peak season here. Slow roasting them gives these little cherry toms a fighting chance at punching you in the face with flavour and sweetness.

I’ve got four original recipes for you today:

• The OG slow-roast tomato recipe

• Romesco-inspired slow-roast tomatoes with seared asparagus

• Potsticker dumpling salad with cherry tomatoes and messy, flavour-bomb sauce

• Slow-roasted tomato risotto

Plus some links to other ways to use slow roasted tomatoes in other recipes. Recipes like:

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Chuck some into a Panzanella:

Panzanella 12 Ways

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Stuff them into flatbreads:

Who Ate All the Stuffed Flatbreads?

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Whack them on top of hummus:

Dip Day

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Sub the charred tomatoes for slow roast ones in this:

Charred Tomatoes on Yoghurt 13+ ways

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Cook them on Roman-style pizza:

Roman Pizza, Bonci-Style

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Slow roast tomatoes

This makes enough for around two recipes. You can make extra and freeze any leftovers ready to be defrosted the next time.