Tomato Raisins

Ingredients

• 3 pounds cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to cover finished tomatoes

Directions

1. Set a large stock pot of water over high heat and bring it to a boil, then fill a large bowl with ice water. Cover 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 2 oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions, and heat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). While that gets going, use a sharp paring, tourne, or utility knife to cut out the stem-end core from each tomato, then mark the other end of the skin with an “X.”
2. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water 1 large handful at a time. Blanch them just until the skins start pulling away from the flesh where you cut the “X,” 30 seconds to 1 minute. Lift them out with a large kitchen spider and move them into the ice bath so they stop cooking. Repeat until all the tomatoes have been blanched.
3. Peel the tomatoes with a small paring knife or your fingers, then arrange them on the prepared rimmed baking sheets.
4. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and salt with 2 teaspoons of water until it looks like damp sand. Stir in the olive oil. It is fine if some of the sugar and salt stay gritty. With a pastry brush, lightly dab the glaze over each peeled tomato.
5. Roast the trays until the tomatoes have shrunk to a quarter of their starting size, brushing on more glaze and switching the baking sheets around every hour. The total time can vary quite a bit by oven, so expect anywhere from 2 to 6 hours for the tomatoes to reduce.
6. You can eat them right away, or move them to a sealable container and cover them with extra virgin olive oil. Tomato raisins will keep under oil in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or bagged and frozen for six months.