Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette

[kirra]

Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette

This chunky dressing is sweet, savory and complex, and it’s great hot or cold.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon garlic, minced, divided
1/2 tablespoon unrefined sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 small sweet pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
About 5 baseball-size tomatoes (or a similar quantity of different sizes)
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

Preparation:

Whisk together 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon garlic, sugar, salt, white pepper, sweet pepper and onion. Cut tomatoes in half and toss them with oil mixture. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining oil, vinegar and garlic, then add Tabasco sauce, basil and thyme. Refrigerate oil-vinegar mixture.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place tomatoes cut side down in a glass dish. Pour the liquid from their marinade over them, and roast for about 25 minutes for large tomatoes, or about 10 minutes for small tomatoes. The skins will wrinkle and pull away from the flesh. Remove from oven and let tomatoes cool, then slip off and discard skins, and dice tomatoes into bite-size pieces.

Scrape everything from the baking dish into the refrigerated oil and vinegar mixture, then add tomatoes. Stir and let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 1 cup