Your side dish can’t get easier than this. If you have pesto in your freezer (either store-bought or homemade will do?), then you can prep this dish in about five minutes. Have basil growing like a weed in your garden? Then it might take a bit longer to make, but it’s still pretty simple, and always a big hit.
Now when we decided to make these roasted tomatoes, we preheated the oven and waited for it to get hot enough. We had planned an entire menu with short cooking times and a variety of dishes based on the fact that our oven would work. Little did we know that because of the extreme heat there would be a brown out! So tomatoes that should have taken about 15 minutes to soften and caramelize took over an hour. Oops. Hey, they still turned out delicious. And we tried them again in ovens that actually worked; they were still a hit!
Pesto Roasted Tomatoes, adapted from Ina Garten:
Ingredients:
- 2 – 2 1/2 pounds large red tomatoes (we used Jersey tomatoes!)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup pesto
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (omit if you’re making this with a pareve meal, like we did)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Core the tomatoes and slice them across/not through the stem into 1/2 inch thick slices.
3. Arrange slices on a baking sheet in a single layer.
4. Drizzle with olive oil.
5. Sprinkle the oregano, salt, and pepper.
6.Bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and spread each slice with pesto. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if using.
8. Bake for another 7-10 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft (and if you put cheese, it is slightly browned).
9. Remove from oven and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Enjoy!
