This time of year, “preserving” the harvest usually means more freezing or drying and less canning. The gardens are depleted to the point that it just doesn’t make sense to can one jar of tomatoes. Plus, the shorter days have left the remaining tomatoes either green, or ripe but not very sweet.

I wasn’t willing to let the few remaining cherry tomatoes in my garden go to waste though. Since I’ve been drying cherry tomatoes for months now, this was a good opportunity to roast some of the remainders. Roasted tomatoes have a sweet, rich tomato flavor. Once roasted, tomatoes can be frozen and given as gifts. Roasting tomatoes is also an easy way to give wintertime grocery store tomatoes some flavor. Plus it’s one of the easiest projects out there.

Recipe:

• Cherry or grape tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Sea salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wash tomatoes and place on the cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes. Let roasted tomatoes cool. Spoon into containers and freeze.

Note: Roasted tomatoes may be served over pasta and pesto, mixed into a pasta salad recipe, spooned over grilled steak or chicken, or added to homemade soup.