Dear Reader, I’ve been going a bit crazy lately. Buoyed by the fabulous summer fruit and vegetables on offer I’ve been busy preserving (and eating) as much of it as possible. Two of my favourite summer items are tomatoes and garlic and the ones that I’ve been eating lately have been sweet sun kissed specimens.
Then one day I saw a post on Glamorous Glutton where she made a tomato confit and I thought that this would be a fabulous way to preserve the summer’s harvest. Confit is usually submerging and cooking an item in oil at low temperatures that also gives flavour. Salmon is a popular confited item but other things can also be cooked this way including tomatoes and garlic. GG’s clever method is similar to the Moonblush Tomatoes where you split tomatoes and drizzle them in oil and pop them in a preheated but inactive oven overnight.
I thought I’d do half of these like those but the other half as a traditional confit, submerged in good olive oil flavoured with garlic and herbs. I left the oven to go while I ran errands and came back to a garlicky, tomato smell. Carefully I took out the tomatoes and the skins were wrinkled and they were bursting with flavour and juice. I sliced a piece of chewy sourdough bread, placed it under the grill with some of my favourite cheese and popped three fat confit cherry tomatoes on top. A dash of salt and pepper for taste and realised that I could extend my summer to go for months on end. A sunny, cheery thought indeed!
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite season for food? Spring because all the new fresh produce, summer for the glut of sweet fruit, autumn for chestnuts and mushrooms or winter for warming soups and stews?
Confit Tomatoes
- 500g/1 pound cherry tomatoes
- 3-4 large garlic cloves, smashed
- olive oil to cover
- thyme or other herbs to season
- salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 121c/250F. Wash and dry tomatoes and place in a baking dish along with the garlic and herbs. Season well with salt and pepper. Cover with oil and bake uncovered in the oven for thirty minutes, then turn the oven down to 100C/212F and bake for two and a half more hours. Once the skins are wrinkled, they are ready. Be careful removing this from the oven as the oil is hot. Allow to cool, remove the garlic and refrigerate in jars in the oil.
2. Refrigerate in the oil and store in a jar in the fridge.
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50 Comments | Add your own
That is so delicious! Wonderful when served on toasted bread and with a slice of feta…
Cheers,
Rosa
Those confit tomatoes, totally submerged in oil look wonderful. Now I’ll have to make your recipe. Thanks Lorraine for the mention, so glad you liked the splash of sweet summer. GG
What a gorgeous presentation and very clever idea! I bet the oil it was confit’d in is also delicious for dressings or even pizza! I usually just oven dry my tomatoes to intensify the flavour; it works surprisingly well for the tasteless winter variety. This version looks incredible for salads!
My favourite is summer for all the abundance of stone fruit and berries… but then there is autumn with great apples and tarty citrus…but then just thinking, I do also like winter with soups and slow cooked dishes a plenty…but then spring, oh spring with her cheeky tahhdahh moments… Oh hell, I like them all.
Delicious! We also have an abundance of fresh produce at the moment and I’m loving finding ways for preserving them! Sadly I’m running out of jars.
I saw that post and was inspired too. Your simple lunch of bread, cheese and these tomatoes sounds fit for a king – and looks stunning too. What great colour in your images. xx
Goodness, they DO look delicious! Perfect season for it too! x
Good morning Lorraine. I must say, I love all of the seasons and the changing produce each one brings. I celebrate each. Beautiful recipe you’ve shared today, thank you ; )
These look great, and I bet they taste even better! Terrific idea to preserve them them like this Lorraine
I spent yesterday turning kilos and kilos of home grown tomatoes into pasta sauce for the cooler weather, wish I’d read your post earlier!
I love Summer and Autumn the most, sweet stone fruit, veggie garden in full swing, then mellow light and flavours in autumn with comfort food sneaking back onto the menu xox
Autumn is what I love because of the pears, apples and avocados.
Any method for prolonging the best of the tomatoes is always attractive to me – can’t wait to try this.
I’m the same, loving the seasonal produce atm and tomatoes are divine. I roast cherry or grape with herbs from our garden and then place them on top of toast spread with low fat ricotta. Yum!!
I adore summer fruit, so much so that I forget to preserve it, I like eating it so much. This confit looks wonderful.
So delicious, so Italian, so me
even though I’ve only just eaten! Truss tomatoes are the best for sweetness I find and am willing to pay a little extra in order to have the real tomato-y taste. I opened a pack the other day and the smell catapulted me back in time to when my dad had them growing in his vegetable patch. I’d pluck them off the plant and eat them just like that Mmmm,the unadulterated taste of Summer!
I love that Nature’s bounty is overflowing in Summer but all seasons bring a delicious specimen that makes the season worthwhile,eg. Chestnuts & Pomegranates in Autumn, Mandarins & Fennel in Winter, the first Asparagus, Artichokes and Blood Oranges of Spring! Joy for my tastebuds!!
These look wonderful,not only pretty, but full of imagined flavor. It’s a toss up for me between spring and summer, but probably summer for the sheer glut of fruits.
What a delightful idea! I have eaten confit salmon, but never made it – this is too interesting not to try
! You tell us to store it in the oil in the fridge: how long do you think it would keep enjoyable to eat? Oh, seasons! Yes, every one has its foodie charms, but personally I love spring because of my love of fresh asparagus and artichokes 
!
I am really enjoying the tomatoes and garlic too
Great recipe!
Summer. Tomatoes and raspberries. Swoon.
Looks DELISH! TRUE!
Love roasted tomato, garlic, basil combination all year through!
DREAM about white peaches or white cherries, elderberries too!
So, looks like summer fruits win out with me…WHOO HOO!
mmm this looks so delicious,I am a huge tomato person so these preserves are perfect for the winter to come!
Cheers
CCU
I would definitely be picking out the garlic to spread so-sweetly over sourdough toast
These look amazing! Seriously sometimes the simplest food are the best
Hmmm I think for me I really like winter food, pumpkin soup, stews and all those ~
But then I also love the fresh produce we get during summer OMG I can’t get enough mangoes hehe!
Fabulous and I will do it. Can’t wait to try it on sourdough as you did. Now Lorraine, do you think it would work to preserve chillies too – I have a heap but get a bit freaked when reading about botulism etc etc when storing chillies in oil, but the long heat process should work shouldn’t it? And the oil would be sublime to use also.
I love spring for the new season of asparagus and broad beans
I like your blue plate, it’s like the piece of bread is floating on a pond.
Hi Gin-Tonic! Oh hmm I would think that they’re cooked through at that length of time but to be honest, I’m not sure about botulism. I have heard garlic is one to watch so that’s why I mentioned taking the garlic out of the oil. Apparently when they put it in commercially they add other things to ensure that people don’t get botulism
I think just to be safe, just increase the temperature to over 121C/250F for 30 minutes to prevent any botulism 
Oh yum I can almost taste it. I wish I’d read this post earlier because today’s sourdough bakings are about to emerge from the oven!
What a scrumptious way to preserve the bounty of summer!
Don’t make me choose, Lorraine
I’ve been making this a lot lately, isn’t it just divinity?!
Heidi xo
Dear Lorraine,
This is very clever idea indeed to prolong all the favourite ingredients of the season.
I love the juicy ripened truss tomatoes for its fabulous flavour in soups and salads.
There not much more delicious than this. sweet summer tomatoes slow cooked. Beautiful
Delicious! Going to make these as gifts
These look amazing! I daresay you can also toss them into salads!
We always love spring, when it is mulberry season here … going onto strawberry season. And then summer for mangoes and cherries! And, well, I guess there are yummies all year round really!
Tomato and garlic, how simple yet delicious! Though I do believe a sprinkling of cheese would make things that much better
I can’t wait for ripe and sweet seasonal tomatoes! We’ve been stuck with the flavourfulless winter ones for now
Love simple recipes esp when they involve garlic. I also love anything with coriander! Might sprinkle a small chopped up pieces of that to serve with those tomatoes.
I can’t decide, each season has its own delights and we should enjoy them all!
I love your tasty tomato confit recipe a lot! I can make this in Summertime when I have my own home grown red cherry tomatoes! Yeah!
I love Summer because of my home grown veggies but I love Autumn too because of pumpkins, wild mushrooms, venison & autumn leaves & long walks in the Forests!
I was just talking to the supermarket checkout chick about how great tomatoes smell yesterday – no wonder people started to bottle them
I think the confit sounds wonderful but turning on the oven doesn’t sound great in this weather – though it has been up and down lately so there are days I would make it
Mmmm tomatoes. I think heirloom tomatoes will be in season in VIC shortly – looking forward to that!
Spring, hands down for my favorite food season: frost kissed artichokes, asparagus, spring garlic. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
These tomatoes look so delicious. Thanks for posting such a terrific idea!
Oh, what a beautiful confit! I love tomato, and tomato season is my favorite season! I make this often (http://www.picnicatmarina.com/2012/06/tomato-ariosto.html) and forn that cooking it longer does help with flavor development. Next time I’ll it bake for 3 hours.
Ahhh its perfect! I just moved into my new house on saturday and the garden is bursting with tomatoes! Need to get my hands on some preserving jars STAT!!!
Wow! this looks absolutely delicious!! I love cherry tomatoes and love the method of confit. Easy but it brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes and such a great way to preserve the summer goodness!
while i don’t care for winter’s weather, it seems to bring out the most tasty foods.
Wow I never even thought that tomatoes could be confit, I’m interested to see what the taste and texture would be like. I have been going tomato garlic crazy at the moment – one of my fave snacks is buttered toast with a few slices of fresh tomato with garlic and salt. So simple and so good!
That is so cool I would not have thought of doing confit tomatoes, a must do in my summer season. And yes summer is the best for produce.
Simple but delicious! Have to try this next summer!
Pinned this. Missing tomatoes so much now that it is winter here! Will not let that happen next year thanks to you!
You said autumn for mushroom! I think there is no such connection in the US. In Japan mushroom is always symbol for autumn..but when I say autumn food means “chestnuts and mushroom” here people get surprised… I think I was supposed to say “pie” or “pumpkin” sort of thing haha. I was surprised to see Australian and Japanese have something in common.
Sorry off the topic. I love tomatoes and this looks delicious. What a pretty blue plate you have too!
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