This is probably one of the easiest, tastiest “recipes” I keep in my arsenal. I eat them *at least* once a week, and it’s definitely on the short list of things I’ll just make a huge batch of and nosh on all week when they’re on sale (which is basically always, somewhere. Unless you’re driving 90 minutes to the only proper grocery around, if you’re paying more than $3/pint for conventionally grown teeny ‘maters, you’re paying too much.)

Shortly before meeting their fiery, roasty, get-in-mah-belly fate.

I put “recipe” in quotes because it almost feels fraudulent to call this as much, but my need to make sure you’ve got these in your life trumps my self-consciousness at calling this “cooking”. They don’t even have to be super fresh, y’all; as long as they don’t just outright collapse under pressure, they aren’t grey and weird inside, and you’re positive they won’t make you sick, there’s really no reason your tomatoes have be fresh off the truck here (which is reason #491 I heart roasting vegetables – it’s the ultimate redeemer of 11th hour produce).

You can toss them with pasta and serve with a salad for a way-easier-than-it-looks-and-tastes dinner, get a little fancier and add them at the end of a risotto, you can use them with a few thin cheese shards and a drizzle of balsamic reduction on top of crusty bread for an easy appetizer/snack/light meal, or you can just scrape the whole damned pan into a big bowl and park on the couch with your furchild for a Tomato-And-DVR-Party of one. Hypothetically. So I’ve heard.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pint Grape/Cherry/Whatever Tomatoes are they small? are they round? are they kind of, sort of, mostly pretty fresh? Alrighty, then.

at least 2 cloves of garlic This, however, does need to be fresh. If it’s got little green things coming out the top, or the cloves basically fall out of the bulb with no coaxing, move on to the next.

1-2 shallots Again, use what you have. If you’re shallot-free but have a huge bunch of green onions/scallions, chop up the white/light green parts of a few and call it good; got a mild, yellow onion in need of use? same deal. I wouldn’t use red onion as an outright sub, but if you’re a big red onion fan and know what you’re getting yourself in to, go for it.

a few tablespoons of good olive oil If you want to go a little nutty on the oil and add extra of everything-but-the-tomatoes, the roasted/blendy oil makes a great pasta drizzle/bread dipping oil; you’ll need at least 2-3 tablespoons for the tomatoes as-is, though.

coarse salt (roughly 2-3 tsp)

fresh, coarse-ground pepper (roughly 2-3 tsp)

TO-DO:

Preheat the oven to 425*F. While the oven’s warming up, spread your little ‘maters out on heavy-gauge jelly roll pan (what I usually use) or a roasting pan, lined with foil if you’re the type who does that for messier oven operations. The main thing is to make sure you’re using one of your “good pans” that can take the heat, because otherwise, your cheap-ass, tin-thin cookie sheets will warp in about 90 seconds and send oily tomatoes popping all over your oven. I see you, contemplating trying it anyway. Not worth it. Wash the freaking pan.)

K, as I was saying – dump the little tomatoes out on your pan; don’t get to obsessive about spacing yet because you’re about to molest them and move them around anyway. Finely chop – like, mince - the garlic and shallots (or just use a garlic press – this is a judgement-free zone). Sprinkle the garlic-and-shallot chunklets fairly evenly over the tomatoes (again, don’t sweat it too much, they’ll all get friendly soon). Drizzle the olive oil all over the tomatoes, garlic, and shallots, and either tilt the pan back and forth and around quickly and slightly erratically, like those cheap party favors with the little silver ball in the plastic maze. Or do like I do, and just roll the tomatoes around with your bare hands – either way, just make sure all the tomatoes are evenly coated in the oil, and that the garlic/shallot mixture is spread out fairly evenly. Now, go ahead and get a little OCD and make sure the tomatoes are fairly evenly spaced, and sprinkle with your salt and pepper.

You may want to also cover the pan with foil if you’re super nuts about keeping your oven clean. I (a) am not and (b) am willing to risk a slightly tomatoey/garlicky oven to get the little almost-charred bits on the tomatoes (for which I would trade small portions of my soul) that I haven’t been able to get as reliably with the foil. So cast your lots, people, and pop the little guys in the oven.

Leave them for at least 15 minutes; at that point, you can check on them if you wish – they should be nicely cooked and starting to mush up a little bit (but it could take as long as 20 minutes to get to this point, depending on your oven). If you want to keep going, and I recommend you do, they will continue to roast, brown, and caramelize – I usually go closer to 25-30 minutes. I wouldn’t push it past about 35/40; at that point, things will really escalate quickly and you can easily go from “Holy crap that looks phenomenal, 2 more minutes will certainly be the key to eternal happiness” to “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TAKE THE BATTERIES OUT OF THE DAMNED SMOKE DETECTOR?!” and/or “GOOD GOD, I DIDN’T KNOW VEGETABLES COULD EXPLODE!”

Remove from oven, and let sit for a few minutes. Have your way with them and remember to send me a thank you note.