cookery · vi

tomatoes, slow

enough for the week · three hours · august only

ingredients

• a kilo of small tomatoes, ripe and a little soft
• good olive oil, generously
• a head of garlic, cloves only, unpeeled
• thyme, a small fistful
• coarse salt

method

1. halve the tomatoes; lay them cut-side up in a heavy tray with the garlic and thyme.
2. pour oil until the cut faces glisten; salt sparingly; cook at the lowest oven you can manage.
3. three hours later they will have shrunk to half their selves and will keep, covered in their oil, for a week.

a small jar of summer kept against the first cold week.

these belong on bread, in tomorrow's supper, or spooned cold from the pantry in the afternoon.