How to preserve your excess tomatoes with this Garlic and Olive Oil Tomato Recipe.

How to Preserve Your Excess Cherry Tomatoes

February 12, 2023

What to do when you have an abundance of cherry tomatoes growing in your veggie patch? Preserve them with olive oil and store for up to 3 months!

Preparing the cherry tomatoes with olive oil for roasting.

We grew these Black Cherry Tomatoes from Greenpatch Seeds. They definitely weren't black but more of a dark pink compared to the black cherry tomatoes we have regularly coming up in other parts of our vegetable garden.

Either way, we used one packet of seeds and had great germination success and planted the tomato seedlings out once the plants reached about 7cm tall.

We also used climbing mesh given to us by our neighbour to support the plants, and trimmed the under leaves periodically to stimulate fruit growth and it definitely reduced pests and diseases.

We started to harvest the tomatoes after about 3 months from sowing the seeds, and have continued to harvest for at least 2 months. Overall we have had three large tomato harvests from these plants in between our daily use of fresh tomatoes. We also stocked our friends and family, so needed a way preserve the rest.

We came across a recipe whereby you bake the cherry tomatoes in garlic, salt, pepper, good quality olive oil and selected herbs and then once cooled transfer to a sealable jar and preserve in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. If done correctly the tomatoes can be used in a number of ways including, as a salsa, in salads, pastas, chicken and vegetable dishes and blended to enrich your spaghetti bolganese.

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes growing from heirloom tomato seeds. This was one of the easiest recipes I found to preserve cherry tomatoes so we highly recommend giving it a try, they are also a great addition to any cheese plate or vegan meal.

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes in Olive Oil.

PREP TIME :5 MINUTES

COOK TIME :2 HOURS 30 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME :2 HOURS 35 MINUTES

Ingredients

1kg cherry tomatoes, you can use cherry or any heirloom varieties
3/4 cup of the best olive oil you can afford or enough to cover
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
6-8 basil leaves torn
3 cloves of garlic smashed with the side of a knife
½ teaspoon salt
A few cracks of black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 110 degrees celcius. Rinse and dry the tomatoes, then spread onto a large baking sheet. Add the thyme, basil and garlic to the pan, then drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil and toss with your hands, making sure everything is coated, especially the garlic and herbs to keep them from getting crispy.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then give a good stir to coat everything. Roast for 2 1/2 hours, stirring a few times throughout, or until tomatoes are blistered and shrunken as shown above.
Taste one and sprinkle with a little more salt if needed. Remove garlic and herbs, as they can spoil and are not safe for preserving, then add the tomatoes to a sterilized jar (thoroughly washed with soapy hot water).
Cover completely with olive oil and store in the refrigerator for 6 weeks (or longer) just make sure they stay completely submerged in the oil. The olive oil will harden in the refrigerator, which is fine, just let sit out before serving and it will return to liquid.
Do not eat if any mould or fungus is growing on the top of the jar
To use after preserving, take some from the jar and heat up or add some to your salads. We love to use it as our tomato sauce in pastas, with some extra herbs and sprinkle of parmesan cheese.