It’s incredible to me how quickly summer disappeared this year. One moment, Paris was baking in an eternal sunshine that’s ever-so-rare, and the next, I was pulling out my tights and sweaters and brewing endless pots of tea, watching as the sky painted itself grey and the sun never really appeared.
Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence of the sheer speed with which this happened is my counter: it’s still the proud bearer of a large bowl of summer tomatoes, perhaps the last. And now that it’s warm, and I have no desire to eat salad for dinner, I had to come up with a clever way to use them.
I always thought it was sad to cook summer tomatoes, sapping their raw energy and power, their texture, their flavor, their aroma. But this minimalist dish actually did them a fair bit of credit, and I don’t think it’s the last time it’s paraded through my kitchen.
When roasted, the potatoes soak up the best of the tomatoes, becoming vessels for their umami-rich juices. The tomatoes, meanwhile, become charred and ever-so-sweet thanks to the high heat of the oven. All this dish needs is a touch of salt and a bit of garlic to make these veggies really shine, but I like a touch of duck fat as well, which makes the sauce even richer.
Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes
1 pound summer tomatoes, sliced
1 pound potatoes, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon duck fat (or more olive oil, for a vegetarian version)
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Toss together the tomatoes, potatoes, olive oil, duck fat, and fleur de sel. Roast in an even layer on a baking sheet for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and the edges of the tomatoes are dark and caramelized. Remove from the oven and toss with the garlic powder before serving.