Slow Oven Roasted Tomatoes
This method of slow roasting tomatoes comes to me from my good friend Lisa E.. The point isn't to completely dry them, just to concentrate the flavors to take complete advantage of the tomato's flavor potential. Later in the week I'll be posting a recipe that uses these tomatoes so you can ask yourself how you've lived so long without them. You need to try it soon because in-season tomatoes will be done in the next month. You can make extra batches of these and freeze them.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil to catch all the drippings. Then place a drying rack on top of it. This lets the oven air circulate around the tomatoes for better drying out. If you don't have one, you can still make these, just put the tomatoes directly on the foil. They won't dry out as well but you'll still get the deepened flavor. A great alternative is to use paste tomatoes which don't drip as much.
Slice tomatoes thickly (between 3/8" and 1/2" thick). They are going to shrink quite a bit. 
Lay them out on the rack closely together. (So you can fit as many as possible on one baking sheet). Incidentally, I always do two trays at a time. I do this because I can't make small batches of things. I like to make as much as possible. Some people call this "greed", but I prefer to call it SMART.
Brush all top sides of the tomatoes with either olive oil or other cooking oil. This will help develop a rich texture. Everything roasts better with oil.
Sprinkle with salt.
NOT SALT. This is the secret weapon.
Sprinkle with SUGAR. Lisa says this is VERY important. If you have used a slicing tomato then turn them all over and brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and sugar. You won't have to do this if you use paste tomatoes.
Put them in the oven and cook for several hours. Yes, I know, it isn't a quick recipe, but it is so easy I think you won't mind the hours they tie up your oven racks. If you do two trays of them at once, I suggest switching the trays between the top and bottom rack every hour or so so that they all bake evenly.
They're done when they are dried out a bit, are half their original size, darken in color, and smell richly of tomato. There's no exact baking time. you will have to just wait until they look like the above picture. 
Now what to do with them? Are you serious? You can chop them up and add them to pasta (that's a recipe I will post later in the week) or on sandwiches, or on pizza, or... I have just done a couple of batches of slow oven roasted paste tomatoes and I think those are my favorites, but using the slicing ones make them perfect for sandwiches.
Hey, should I have some clever way of signing off? Don't all recipe people have some cute thing they say as they raise their glass to you at the end of a recipe, such as "bon apetite"? Or "good eats" or "Invite me to dinner"?
