First off, I had no idea what confit was, or how to pronounce it. I’d seen “Duck Confit” on menus but had no inclination to try it. But a friend served up this little side at a baby shower, and I was surprised when she told me it was Cherry Tomato Confit. Um, what???
Apparently confit (pronounced cone-fee) isn’t a someTHING, but a someHOW. It’s a French term that means “to cook slowly in fat”. I still don’t have a clue what that means for our fine feathered friends, but thankfully I now know what it means for the abundance of cherry tomatoes I have in the garden!
By roasting tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil, with the addition of garlic, salt, pepper and herbs, at 250 degrees for an hour or more, what you get is a savory topping that smells like Nona’s kitchen and tastes like a Tuscan summer.
You can use it as a topping for crostini or crackers, like my friend did, as a pairing with hummus and other dips, toss it with pasta for a main dish, or spoon some over your protein, be it chicken or beef.
Ingredients:
2 cups of cherry tomatoes +/-
1 - 1 1/2 cups of extra virgin olive oil +/-
1 head of garlic, sliced in half horizontally
Zest of one lemon
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Herbs of choice, to taste. (oregano, sage, basil and rosemary were in the garden - you can use dried herbs)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F
Place tomatoes in single layer in shallow baking dish, add enough olive oil so the tomatoes are at least half-way covered.
Remove loose skin from garlic halves, then place, cut side up, in between tomatoes.
Add lemon zest, salt, pepper, and herbs.
Bake for one to two hours (depends on how large the tomatoes are), until tomatoes and garlic have softened. Do not cook so long that tomatoes turn to mush, they should still hold their shape.
Remove from oven.
When cool enough to handle, the garlic should slide right out of the husk. Recombine with tomatoes and serve warm or place in clean jars with enough of the oil to cover all tomatoes and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Don’t even think of discarding the oil if there is some remaining once you’ve transfered to storage container. It’s so flavor packed! Use it in salads or to saute’ up some garden veggies!
