Slow Roasted Tomato Confit

Time: 2 35

Servings: 2 jars

To make tomato confit the tomatoes are slow-roasted tomatoes with garlic and oil and then stored in jars to use in many different ways.

If you have a glut of tomatoes in your garden or can find them in a larger quantity, tomato confit is a great way to preserve that summer flavour.

What Is Confit?

The word confit (pronounced “kon-FEE”) derives from the French verb confire which means to preserve. In traditional French cooking, confit refers to anything preserved by slowly cooking it in a liquid. Just about anything can be “confied.” For fruit, you would preserve it in sugar syrup. Confiture is the French word for jam preserves. For garlic, you use olive oil. The most well-known confit dishes in France are duck legs which are cured in salt before cooked in duck fat. Once cooked, the food is then packed into containers, totally submerged in the liquid. You want an impenetrable barrier to prevent any bacterial growth.

This confit is simply slow-roasted tomatoes with plenty of olive oil, garlic, and herbs. When covered in oil and stored it lasts longer than fresh tomatoes and concentrates the taste so you can use less.

cherry tomatoes on the vine — Lovely on-the-vine cherry tomatoes

Make sure to use fresh, ripe tomatoes for the best flavour. I use Vittoria on-the-vine cherry tomatoes, but you can use baby plum tomatoes, or mixed-color cherry tomatoes, whichever you have available.

Exactly What is Confit?

The French word “confit” literally means to preserve.

Before refrigeration, humans needed a way to preserve food so it did not rot. Hunters and cooks dating back to the fifteenth century made an early confit by heavily salting the legs and wings of birds before submerging them in fat and storing them in a cool, dark place to ripen for months. What started out as a form of food security turned into a highly-regarded culinary technique used by French chefs, who then exported confit around the world.

Confit (pronounced con-fee) is a preservation method traditionally used for building up pantry foods – with a focus on poultry, in particular, that’s slow-cooked in its own fat with some salt. However, fruit and vegetables can also be prepared this way.

The best-known example is duck confit. But the term “confit” can be used to describe any ingredient, including vegetables, that has been slow-cooked in fat at a low temperature.

Why Confit?

I suppose the best answer is that poultry and vegetables prepared this way just add an extra dimension of depth of flavour which is unique to confit.

In particular, for me this year has been my first growing my own vegetables and fruit on my allotment and I am discovering methods to preserve the crop so I can enjoy the harvest for longer. Obviously, the freezer and fridge are my initial port of call but I like the richness that confit gives to the preserves, particularly garlic and tomatoes.

How to Use Leftover Oil

Don’t waste that olive oil! It can be used as normal cooking oil for roasting vegetables, making tomato sauce, or your everyday use. It adds a slight garlic tomato flavour so I wouldn’t add it to sweets, but it works well in most savoury applications.

You Will Need 3 Empty Jam Jars

This recipe makes enough tomato confit to fill 3 x 300ml jam jars.

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