Confit Heirloom Tomatoes

This is an incredibly simple recipe to make. It does take a couple of hours but the results are definitely worth the wait. These confit heirloom tomatoes can be chilled and stored for weeks. They pair well with anything: meats, seafood, poultry, salads, etc.

Ingredients

See directions for amounts

• Heirloom tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• Aged balsamic vinegar
• Garlic
• Shallots
• Thyme
• Salt

Directions

There is 2 ways to make this recipe: In a sous vide, or in the oven. If you have a sous vide I recommend using it because you can control the temperature throughout the whole cooking process. If you do not have a sous vide using the oven is perfectly fine.

Place the tomatoes in a container (mason jar works for sous vide, oven-safe container otherwise), filling it up to the top. Add garlic cloves whole, chopped shallots, thyme, and salt. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar and then cover the whole thing with olive oil.

The amount for each ingredient really depends on your taste and the amount of tomatoes your confit’ing. In my case, I used:

• About 10 tomatoes
• 1 tbsp of chopped shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp of thyme leaves
• 1/2 – 1 tsp of salt.
• 1 – 2 tbsp(s) of balsamic

Here are some photos and videos to walk you through it.

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The Sous Vide Method

Set the sous vide at 175ºF and place the tomatoes inside the water bath. Once sous vide reaches temperature cook the tomatoes for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Optional: Even though you can just set the mason jar in the sous vide water, I like to take an extra precaution and vacuum seal the mason jar inside a bag. If there is any spillage of olive oil it will happen inside my vacuum seal bag and not create a mess.

The Oven Method

Place the tomatoes uncovered inside the oven and set it to 185ºF – 200ºF (some ovens don’t go as low as 185ºF). Cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. Check the tomatoes for doneness every 10 minutes after the 1 hour and 30 minute mark.

Tip: Place the tomatoes in the oven while the oven is cold. Letting the olive oil come up to temperature as the oven heats up ensures that the tomatoes are actually cooked slowly for a long period of time. If you put the tomatoes in after the oven has reached temperature then you lose precious cooking time while the oil warms up.

Storing for later use

If you want to store the tomatoes for later use you can safely store them in your refrigerator for weeks, as long as you store them in the same oil that you cooked them in. Confit used to be a way to preserve food, you can learn more about it here.