Dorie Greenspan’s Giverny tomatoes are inspired by a similar confit dish served in a restaurant in Giverny. Claude Monet’s house and famous garden is located there; it’s worth a visit. From my research, it was only at Giverny that Monet was able to establish the lifestyle that really suited him. Giverny was where his ideas about food took shape and created his own art of living. Their food, homemade but often making use of recipes invented by great restaurants and friends. They were the writers and painters and art collectors, in today’s context, the food and style influencers at the time.
Monet’s (and his wife Alice) sole culinary ambition was to serve beautifully prepared dishes using whatever the garden or the farm could supply. Meanwhile, our source of supply is from the local farmers market and farmyard of friends. The season is upon us when tomatoes are most abundant, colorful and come in all shapes and forms. They’ve been adorning my kitchen island and counter with great aplomb. What should I do with all the tomatoes? I have a list.
The Giverny tomato is as beautiful as it is unusual. It’s simply a tomato gently roasted and basted with olive oil. “It tastes vegetal and rich, as you’d expect, but it’s also sweet and citrusy,” says Dorie. Most notably, each tomato is served whole.
The tomatoes are peeled and cored before a mixture of sugar and lime zest is spooned into the hollow right in the center. It’s brushed with citrus-scented olive oil and roasted at very low temperature in the oven until it’s almost candied.
It sounds like dessert, but it’s really the most perfect starter of the tomatoes season.
Giverny Tomatoes | Everyday Dorie
Ingredients
- 4 medium, ripe but firm round tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 limes (you'll need just the zest)
- ¼ teaspoon pure lemon or lime oil or extract, optional
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, preferably mild and fruity
- Maldon or other flaky sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Center a rack in the oven and heat to 170°F. Have a nonreactive baking pan at hand that can hold the tomatoes comfortably, such as a 9-inch, deep-dish pie plate.
PEEL THE SKIN: Put a large saucepan of water to boil and fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes. Cut a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato, and one by one, drop them into the boiling water. Count 15 to 20 seconds, then transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of ice water. Peel each tomato. Using a small knife, remove each tomato’s core, creating a V-shaped hollow an inch or so deep. Arrange the tomatoes in the pan.
FILL THE HALLOW: Put the sugar in a small bowl, then finely grate the zest from both limes over it. Rub the ingredients together between your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic and maybe colored. Spoon an equal amount of sugar into each tomato.
If you’re using lemon or lime oil or extract, stir it into the olive oil. Spoon the olive oil over the tomatoes, allowing just a few drops to fall into the tomatoes’ hollows.
BAKE: Bake for 2 to 3 hours, basting a couple of times each hour, until the tomatoes are soft all the way through but still hold their shape. (You can poke them with a bamboo skewer or the tip of a thin knife to test.) Remove the dish from the oven, and season the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
These are best served at room temperature, but can also be enjoyed warm or even chilled. Spoon a little oil from the baking dish over each tomato just before serving. These are at their peak the day they are made, but they’ll hold for a day in the refrigerator. If you’ve refrigerated the tomatoes, it’s best to serve them either chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021432-slow-roasted-tomatoes-with-olive-oil-and-lime
2 Comments
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)
September 8, 2023 at 9:04 amThis was too sweet for me but it was a GORGEOUS dish! Glad you enjoyed! I loved the technique and will use again with out of season tomatoes in winter, minus the sugar part..
Kim
September 8, 2023 at 12:20 pmI loved all the background information you included! So interesting! Your tomatoes look beautiful 😍