Not-so-slow Roasted Tomatoes

for the better part of a year, i'd been reading about slow-roasted tomatoes...

given that tomatoes have never really been my favorite, it always seemed like they would take way more time than i wanted to devote to making them - i'm nothing if not impatient and the idea of waiting 3 hours for something i might not even like that much?  yeah, not high on my priority list...

however, a few weeks back, we were discussing dinner and while i have no recollection of what our main course was, i distinctly remember the discussion of sides...  Jordan mentioned something about roasted tomatoes and i was like, 'eh, what about blahblahblah...' but it got me thinking...

what about tomatoes?

i have developed something of a taste for them (still hate the anemic pink ones) so maybe that could work...  but, as mentioned, all the recipes wanted me to devote like, 3 hours of my life to these things and i was not on board. because, lets see, if i leave work at 6 & stop at the store, i'm not getting home much before 7.  which means those 3 hour tomatoes wont be done until 10pm, and thats assuming i dont even take my coat off or change before getting started...

but i kept looking, because i started thinking about all the times i've used roasted tomatoes in other things and how they've been pretty good, and so maybe with the right spices, etc, they didnt need to be quite so slow-roasted???

and then came everyone's favorite love-to-hate her tv personality - rachael ray...  i know, i know...

but, but, but!

she roasts tomatoes in like, an hour!  an hour!  i know, blasphemy, but i can do an hour!!!  sure, i had my doubts - would they be good?  but really, what was the worst that could happen, we'd throw them away, right?  so i went for it...

As its not exactly tomato season here in NYC, i couldnt find any pretty plums, so i substituted some camparis, undoubtedly flown in from some warm, exotic location (what, i never labeled this post as local...) and didnt look back.

and while i'm sure that slow roasted tomatoes are still superior, i'd whole-heartedly recommend these for nights when you want to eat before 10 pm...

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Not-so-slow Roasted Tomatoes
courtesy of Rachael Ray with modifications by me

1 pint campari tomatoes
~ 2 tbsp olive oil
~ 1 tsp dried thyme
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (psst: wanna take the easy way out?  1 tbsp of pre-minced garlic would work just fine)
sea salt (fine or coarse - whatever you have)
freshly ground pepper

***

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Remove any stems from the tomatoes and slice them in half.
De-seed & de-gel them.

Lay the tomatoes, cut side up, in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with thyme, garlic, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Roast for 40 minutes.

Increase the oven temperature to 400° and roast the tomatoes until caramelized, about 20 minutes more.

Turn off the oven and leave the tomatoes inside for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool.

Once they are cool enough, start snacking. These worked really well as an appetizer when the rest of dinner took a little too long ;)