Tomatoes for Roasting

Cherry tomatoes yield high flavor when roasted. Their many varieties--red, yellow, orange, purple, and green, each with a unique flavor, made more intense by roasting, are first choice for creating a highly-flavored roasted topping of tomato, onion, and garlic used on pizza, pasta, garden vegetables, and baked potatoes. With their thin skins and smaller amounts of juice, there's never too many cherry tomatoes in the garden to roast into a thick, flavorful sauce.

Another favorite besides cherry tomatoes are plum tomatoes. The three-inch long, Heirloom San Marzano Lungo tomato variety has meaty walls, few seeds, and minimal juice, all good qualities for roasting and making tomato sauce. Slicing either cherry or plum tomatoes releases the flavor into the roasted sauce.

So look for vine ripe, cherry and plum tomatoes to create delicious, complex sauces you'll want to make again and again.