Recipes › Paste Tomato › Roma Tomato Confit
Roma Tomato Confit
Roma tomatoes slow-cooked in a generous pool of olive oil with garlic, herbs, and a pinch of sugar until they become impossibly tender, sweet, and concentrated. The technique — French in origin but perfectly suited to American summer tomatoes — transforms even ordinary Romas into something luxurious. The oil itself becomes an extraordinary condiment, soaking up all the tomato and herb flavour.
Paste Tomato is usually ready May to June. More paste tomato recipes, or see what to sow this month where you are.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper, freshly cracked
Method
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Arrange tomato halves cut-side up in a single layer in a baking dish deep enough to hold the oil. Nestle garlic cloves, thyme, and rosemary among the tomatoes.About 5 min
- Sprinkle tomatoes with sugar, salt, and pepper. Pour olive oil over and around them — the oil should come up about a third of the way up the tomatoes.About 3 min
- Bake for 1.5 hours until the tomatoes are very tender, slightly shrivelled, and the oil is gently bubbling. They should look jammy, not dried. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature before storing.About 90 min
Tips
- The temperature should stay around 300°F — you want a gentle bubble in the oil, not a vigorous simmer.
- Don't discard the garlic cloves; they become spreadably soft and are incredible on toast.
- The confit oil is a flavour bomb — use it to dress salads, cook eggs, or dip bread.
Ring the changes
- Add a strip of lemon zest and a few dried chilli flakes for a slightly spicier, citrus-bright version.
- Use a mix of red and yellow Romas for visual variety.
Keeping it
Store tomatoes submerged in their oil in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Do not store at room temperature once made.
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More from the same crop
A rich, concentrated tomato paste made by roasting halved paste tomatoes until their water evaporates and their sugars caramelize, then puréeing and slow-cooking the result down to a thick, brick-red paste of extraordinary flavor. The depth in homemade tomato paste is incomparable to any store-bought version — it carries the sweetness of peak-season fruit alongside a roasted, slightly smoky complexity. A batch made during Roma season freezes beautifully in small portions that will upgrade every sauce, stew, and braise for months.
2 h 30 min · easy · Paste Tomato
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