Slow-Roasted Tomato Open-Faced Sandwiches (or Shout-Out to Antoni Porowski)

With the heat wave we've been having in Boston, our tomatoes have been busting out all over. I've read a lot about the MIRACLE of slow-roasted tomatoes but thought it was just one of those trendy things designed to make you use your oven for 90 minutes so that you feel like you've done something amazing. Well, it turns out that may be true, and they really are amazingly flavorful and it can work miracles even on tomatoes that are underripe OR a bit (A BIT) past their prime (e.g. NOT ROTTEN, just overripe).

I took inspiration from Deb Perelman's Roasted Tomato Picnic Sandwich from Smitten Kitchen Every Day (p. 107), but unlike that, which is really a RECIPE and involves baking pizza dough, this is a lot more akin to one of those recipes Antoni shares on Queer Eye. Now, I mean NO SHADE here--when you are trying to get a person who can barely maintain the rudiments of personal hygiene to cook for their significant other, you don't have them try their hand at chicken cordon bleu. So, in defense of Antoni, I'm going to advocate for simple recipes that get people IN THE KITCHEN--particularly if they haven't spent much time there.  But I digress...

Since we are calling this an original, I'll share general amounts too, including some brand names*

Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

• Unspecified quantity of tomatoes (garden-fresh are great, but you could use any tomatoes, really--I like small ones. The cooking time will change if you use large ones).
• 4 - 6 garlic cloves, sliced lengthwise in half
• 2 - 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• olive oil
• salt and pepper 
• 4 slices of a nice doughy bread like focaccia (I used Iggy's but you could certainly make your own if you had ambitions!)
• 2 - 3 oz. kalamata olives, sliced in half lengthwise (I used Greek Gourmet, pitted)
• any kind of salty, crumbly, flavorful cheese (I made one sandwich with feta, the other with bleu cheese)

ACCOUTREMENTS

• parchment paper
• baking sheet (large enough to hold your tomatoes in a single layer)

DIRECTIONS

• Heat the oven to 300 degrees. You are SLOW-roasting, so be sure to set aside about 90 minutes for the roasting part.
• Cover the bottom of your baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Slice the tomatoes in half and place them skin-side down on the baking sheet.
• Intersperse the sliced garlic cloves among the tomatoes.
• Pull the leaves off the rosemary (you should be able just to gather them in a bunch starting from the top and strip them down the stem, in the opposite direction to which they grow. Here's a helpful video in case you've never done this before--DO NOT CHOP THEM, however).
• You can try doing the same thing with the thyme, although the thinner stems might prove frustrating. Just separate the leaves in the way that works best for you (DO NOT CHOP).
• Sprinkle the whole (unchopped) rosemary and thyme leaves over the tomatoes, making sure that a lot of it is making contact with the actual tomatoes (seed side).
• Drizzle olive oil (1 - 2 tbsps) over the tomatoes---you don't need to worry about total coverage as the liquid from the tomatoes will help disperse the oil a bit. Do try to make sure the rosemary, thyme and garlic cloves get a good dose of the oil, however.

• Pop the whole thing in the oven for 90 minutes and go read a good book or binge on one Netflix show and a half. Your home will smell amazing.  Or do something productive like clean the bathroom.
• When the tomatoes are done, they should be mostly dehydrated, but with enough liquid to look appetizing. 

• While the tomatoes cook, and when you tire of cleaning the bathroom, assemble 2 slices of focaccia on a plate, sprinkled with the cheese and kalamata olives. You can toast the focaccia if you like, but I left it alone because it was very fresh.

• Artfully arrange tomatoes on the foccacia while they are warm. This will semi-melt some of the cheese (particularly if you are using bleu cheese) and I think they just taste better warm.
• SERVE immediately with the immense satisfaction of your new understanding of the "slow-roasted tomato" craze.

I served them with cucumbers marinated in rice vinegar. Keep it simple so that the tomatoes shine!

NOTE: Roasted rosemary leaves are wonderful. You can eat them. They are crispy and delicious.

*I am not affiliated with any brands mentioned here.