What to do with old tomatoes

We’ve been really bad lately about polishing off our produce. I think it’s because Chicago grocery stores do this weird thing where they pre-package their veggies and then price them as a unit (rather than by weight? I’m not sure). The result is that if you need six tomatoes and the store only has a four-pack, you’re going home with eight tomatoes.

So…that’s sorta what happened to us, I guess. No it’s not. I’m lying. I just impulse bought a crap-ton of tomatoes. And I opened the fridge today to see a bunch of soft, lumpy tomatoes that would be disgusting to eat raw (unless you’re Dave, who will eat just about anything unless he’s allergic to it).

This is a little easy trick that my mom taught me. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Take all of the tomatoes you have no use for (or even the ones you have; this is friggin’ delicious). Halve them and stick ’em in a rimmed dish of some sort.

Then, mix together a couple of glurgs of olive oil, some ground garlic (is the stuff in a tube ground garlic? I never know what to call it. Paste? I suppose I could get up and look in the fridge, but the computer battery is keeping my lap warm and I don’t want to), and whatever herbs you feel like. I put cumin, marjoram, dill, and oregano in this batch. I use cumin in EVERYTHING. I’ll bet a real chef would be horrified by me.

Then, drizzle that shizz all over the tomatoes. Ohhhh yeah. Just like that. Mmmm baby. That’s good.

Sprinkle with salt and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes (or whenever the tomatoes look a bit wrinkled and soft). At this point, your boyfriend will either a) try to eat one of the scorchingly hot tomatoes fresh out of the oven, b) say “Hey, that’s not the way it looked last time!” or c) all of the above. Banish him from the kitchen, grab a fork, and mash up the tomatoes until you have a nice dish of deliciousness.

Transfer to a bowl, toast up some slices of pita (or whatever) in a pan, and un-banish your man. Pig out. Then camp out by your condo’s front door and listen to people in the hallway saying, “My LORD, what IS that AMAZING smell? Is there a restaurant next door?!”