Priceless Tomatoes?: In My Kitchen & On My Bookshelf Right Now

"We never tried to sun-dry tomatoes again.

 Instead we get a similar effect 

by making what some call tomato confit, 

slow-roasting quartered,

seasoned tomatoes in a slow oven 

for a couple of hours."

- William Alexander, The $64 Tomato

As I write the first draft of this post, my perpetually cluttered kitchen is redolent with tomato slow cooking in oil, garlic, fresh thyme and basil and a bit of dried bay leaf. Having finally harvested one perfect Principe Borghese tomato--prized in Italy for how luscious it tastes when dried, I decided to make a wee bit of tomato confit. 

After all, setting up a drying process for a single tomato seemed...excessive.

With half an hour to go in the cooking process, I confess to having just scraped a bit of tomato out to sample.

Heaven. Pure heaven. 

Considering I've never made this dish, lemme tell you what lead me to attempt it. Late last night I finished reading a used copy of William Alexander's The $64 Tomato, a cheerful book that included a chapter on the author's failed attempt to dry tomatoes and subsequent switch to tomato confit.

There were other good bits to the book, especially the section about his attempt to grow organic apples in New York despite admonitions that it simply wouldn't work (it didn't) and his curious encounter with Christopher Walken's gardening doppelganger. And while I haven't spent anywhere near $64 to raise my single Principe Borghese (no signs of more, alas!) , I found most of Alexander's story of gardening-with-just-enough-knowledge-to-get-one's-self-in-trouble rang familiar. (Except for the part about spending $$$$ and building ridiculously large beds with grand illusions for instant perfection...on that front, I'm proud to be a 'start small and cheap with veggie gardens' kind of gal!)

Anyway, if you're looking for something to do with those summer tomatoes and need a easy-breezy read, check out both the confit recipe here and The $64 Tomato. (For the record, I sliced my tomato, which yielded a lovely windowpane effect in the final confit. Oh, and note that you can preserve any leftover tomatoes in olive oil in the fridge. As if you'll have leftovers...)

Explore More Online:

• Here are some pics from the New York state garden that confounded and inspired Alexander.

• Confit defined

• N.B. Whenever I mention a book on the blog...knowing that many readers might not have easy access to either chain or independent booksellers, I provide a link to Amazon for convenience. But, in keeping with this blog's overall sustainability theme, I'd encourage everyone to  try to find the book through a vendor (either new or used!) in your own region to help reduce fuel expended on "book miles." (You can always check the "used and new" options listed on Amazon, too.)