Balsamic tomatoes and carrots salad

I like to confit tomatoes in balsamic vinegar and salt, at a low temperature in the oven. It's very convenient when you find yourself in the middle of a tomato surplus, for example, when you buy 4 kilos of cheap tomatos and forget that you already had another 3 kilos sitting in the fridge... that can happen... and maybe you don't feel like drinking 3 liters of gazpacho. Making the tomatos in confit allows you to still eat a lot of them, but in a different way. And they keep for long in the fridge. By the end of Winter, when you already start to find edible tomatoes at the market (unlike the disgusting insipid things you get in December) here in Spain, it's a very good way to eat tomatos. I find it hard to swallow cold salads in the middle of the Winter. And they're very versatile, you can serve them as a side or accompaniment to almost any dish, either cold or warm. This technique can be applied to other vegetables, like carrots in this case.




This salad couldn't be simpler, sprinkled with some virgin olive oil or basil cream... easy and delightful. And of course, some other veggies can be "confited" as well. Just take into account the different cooking times.

Salad of tomato and carrot en confit
These are the approximate amounts per person:

• 1-2 tomatoes, depending on size (plum tomatoes or any firm flesh tomatoes are best)
• 1 tender carrot
• Balsamic vinegar (of not too bad quality...)
  
• Virgin olive oil
  
• Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC.
   
2. Quarter the tomatoes if they're not too big (cut them in 6 or 8 if needed) and lay them on an oiled oven dish, skin down. Drizzle each piece with balsamic vinegar (if you have spray bottle, use it) and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt. You can add some more oil too if you like. Bake them for 3/4-1 hour, depending on size and type of the tomatoes, or even on how soft you like them.
3. Peel and cut the carrots in thick sticks and season them in the same way, plus add 1 cm of water to another oven dish. Bake them covered around 3/4 hour. Unlike tomatoes, which are very watery and need to dry in the oven, carrots are much drier and would dry excessively if you don't cover them. Prick them to test for doneness, as it depends very much on the carrots freshness.
4. When the veggies are cooked, let them cool. Then lay them on a pretty dish and drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil or this basil cream.

Tomatoes en confit are delicious, they seem to unleash all their sweetness. But many people, like D., dislike overly soft tomatoes. So refrain from preparing this dish if you're one of those people.



By the way, the blog will be closed for some time... I deserve some vacation time too! We're making a trip through Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands by car. I must carry an extra suitcase with me, just to bring back all the special ingredients and kitchen gadgets I will surely buy... goodness. Take care of yourselves. Read you soon.