Tomatoes might be my favorite fruit. But a bad tomato, even a slightly mealy tomato, may very well be one of my least favorite textures known to mankind. How often do people say they don’t like tomatoes and then they try a good one? Many. My British roommate in Japan hated tomatoes until I brought home cherry tomatoes from a tiny shop near my house. And those weren’t even that good!

Here in Texas we have pretty good tomatoes. Alas, not great. I wouldn’t eat any here like an apple. Height of the season I will slice them up with salt and maybe some olive oil. The point of this post is ROASTED tomatoes. Roasting is often what I do if tomatoes are getting a little shrively. Roasting is also fantastic at the end of the season and you’re getting only a couple of mediocre tomatoes at a time. Roast them as they come, stick them in a jar with olive oil, add to the jar until it’s full, and then you have a jar of roasted tomatoes.

And roasting tomatoes is a great trick to bring out the flavor, when they’re just not that flavorful! Which brings me to today’s recipe. Part of the impromptu Sunday supper included Lisa bringing a few tomatoes over and we roasted them up nice and simple like…

6 tomatoes
1 T herbes de Provence or any variety of dried herbs in your cupboard (basil, parsley…)
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Feta or other crumbly cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally and place them cut-side up in a roasting pan. Sprinkle olive oil, then herbs, then feta over each tomato. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper over all the tomatoes. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes (I didn’t write this down). They’re done when they are a little browned on top and nice and shrively. You can turn the heat up to broil for the last few minutes too.