In praise of tomatoes

I discovered little miniature San Marzano tomatoes at Trader Joe's recently and have been having a stare down with them for several days - "What shall I do with you?" Well, I was inspired by a lovely post from Smitten Kitchen in which the virtue of slow roasted tomatoes is extolled. This is how it went down...

Come here my little pretties.

Here you see the little tomato soldiers all lined up drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Some rosemary and thyme are thrown on for good measure and some garlic cloves cannot hurt, right? Lovely.

Into a 275 degree oven for 3 hours! Yes, you cannot rush such things.

Here they are in all their shriveled up sweet glory.

Final destination: mingled with slow sautéed leeks fresh from this morning's Cobblestone Market atop spinach pasta. Just a bit of shredded parmesan makes it euphoric. Wish you all were here!