How To Roast Cherry Tomatoes For The Deepest Flavor

Fresh cherry tomatoes are one of the sweetest, juiciest tomato varieties to embellish a salad or crudité board. As sweet and delightful as they are fresh, roasting them is the key to reaping their deepest flavor and transforming their taut skin and firm interior into a melt-in-your-mouth morsel. Just as cooking any vegetable concentrates its flavors and caramelizes its sugars, roasting cherry tomatoes makes them sweeter and more savory all at once by increasing their glutamate, a key chemical in the fifth and final umami taste.

Since they're small with thin skin and plenty of moisture in their cross section, cherry tomatoes roast quickly and easily. You can halve them or roast them whole depending on personal preference. All you need is to toss a 16-ounce carton of cherry tomatoes in 2 tablespoons of olive oil with salt and pepper before spreading them over a baking sheet. Roast cherry tomatoes in a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for around 20 minutes. The skin on cherry tomatoes will shrivel and burst, while their juices will thicken and sweeten. Once you've let the tomatoes cool, you can add them to any number of dishes, such as pasta, warm salads, sauces, or an upgraded tomato soup.They'll lend an intense tomato-flavor that can stand alone or stand up to any other robust flavor pairings

Olive oil, salt, and pepper are the essential seasonings to enhance the sweet umami of roasted cherry tomatoes. But they're just the tip of the iceberg. You can bring countless other flavors to the mix with herbs, citrus, aromatics, and spices. For an Italian twist, toss cherry tomatoes with minced garlic and an Italian seasoning herbal blend. Dried herbs are better for roasting, but you can finish roasted cherry tomatoes with fresh herbs. Plus, Italian-roasted tomatoes make for a major upgrade to bruschetta. Since the tomatoes all but disintegrate as they roast, Italian-roasted cherry tomatoes get you more than halfway to a fire-roasted sauce. The viral tomato feta pasta recipe is proof of just how easily you can transform tomatoes into a creamy, savory pasta sauce.

Season cherry tomatoes with hot smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, and coriander seed for a Middle Eastern flavor profile. You can serve this over a bed of couscous with kalamata olives, diced red onion, cilantro, and pine nuts. You can also use them to top a piece of crusty bread along with a fried egg for a shakshuka-inspired breakfast toast. Bring tangy citrus notes to the mix by tossing cherry tomatoes with salt, pepper, olive oil, lime juice, and lime zest. These tangy, sweet, and savory roasted tomatoes would be the perfect topping for a warm roasted kale salad with a miso-tahini dressing to accentuate their umami-richness.