It's tomato season, so keep it simple while cooking. No need to make heavy sauces with all those gorgeous tomatoes that are bursting with flavor - try a simple 5 ingredient recipe with slow roasted tomatoes, herbs, loads of olive oil and topped with a filet of anchovy! This recipe is straight from the seaside of Le Marche, where we first devoured this delicious antipasto in Numana.
On a hot summer's day, we keep the kitchen oven off & make these in our outdoor wood burning oven!
Roasted Tomatoes with Anchovies
Pomodori al forno con le acciughe
serves 4
4 round tomatoes (we grow & use
grappolo for this dish)
small handful of any fresh herbs you like, chopped - we use oregano but you can also use basil, thyme, etc.
salt & pepper
good quality extra virgin olive oil
8 high quality anchovy filets, (we use anchovies from Sardegna packed in salt)
Preheat oven to 150 C or 280 F
Cut the top 3rd off the tomatoes & discard top.
Place tomatoes on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper & herbs. Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil. Place in the oven for 4-6 hours depending on the size of your tomatoes. Every once in a while as you pass the kitchen, baste the tomatoes in the juices & olive oil in the pan.
Once the tomatoes shrivel up a bit & start to look sun-dried, they are ready. They should still hold their shape & not become mush.
Remove from oven, top each tomato with a whole anchovy filet. Serve warm or room temperature with olive oil from the baking pan drizzled over the top.
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