Oh, the bounty of the garden! If you planted even one cherry tomato plant this year, you are probably picking a dozen or more tomatoes a day right now. A person can only eat so many salads! Here is a great tomato recipe that you can tweak and improvise to your heart’s content. In fact, it’s less of a recipe and more of a suggestion.

The cooking method of roasting concentrates and intensifies the flavor of the tomatoes, so don’t be put off by the fact that they shrink. Each little morsel packs a punch of flavor.

If you don’t have cherry or grape tomatoes, slice the larger varieties into thick slices and use them instead…or use a mixture. You can add in sweet peppers as I did, or small chunks of peeled eggplant if you want. Or just stick with the tomatoes. I also cooked some small slices of Italian sausage and stirred into my dish, but all veggies is great, too. Enjoy!

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Slice tomatoes or cut small ones in half.

Add peppers or eggplant if desired.

Add finely minced fresh garlic to taste. I used one large clove for two servings.

Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil.

Dust with a healthy pinch of dried oregano, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Toss to coat evenly and spread into single layer in pan.

Roast for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours, stirring once or twice. Remove from oven when tomatoes start to caramelize.

At this point, you could cool the mixture and put into freezer bags to save for a winter’s day.

But life is short…why wait? Toss with your favorite pasta and top with grated Parmesan cheese. With a piece of crusty bread and a glass of pinot noire….mmm…mmm…good!