slow roasted tomatoes Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Grilled Pizza with Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Whipped Ricotta

May 17, 2016 by Marie 14 Comments

If you haven’t tried making grilled pizza yet I can honestly say you’re really missing out. Many people are intimidated by it, I was too when I first started making it a couple of years ago. I made many mistakes, especially when grilling the dough you have to get it just right in my opinion because it can make or break the whole pizza.

When grilled correctly the crust becomes crunchy with just the right amount of chew and the perfect platform for your toppings.

Speaking of toppings, for grilled pizza I wouldn’t use meat unless it’s been pre-cooked and sliced thin.

For me using veggies of any kind is the way to go, but again they should cooked and prepped first. Pizza made on the grill goes really fast, you have no time to cook a meat on top, after you crisp up the crust you’re basically waiting for the cheese to melt. Usually I’ll roast up some zucchini coins or thin slices of eggplant, mushrooms, peppers beforehand so I’m all ready when it comes to topping the pizza, you have to have all your toppings prepped and ready.

This time I decided I was going to use these beautiful heirloom tomatoes that I found which I had slow roasted a couple of days before. They’re basted with garlic and olive oil and slow roasted with fresh thyme or basil for four hours, I love having them tucked away in my fridge to use for appetizers or to top off a special dish or in this case grilled pizza, the flavor is out of this world.

This has now become my new favorite grilled pizza of all times!

My ingredients were: One ball of pizza dough, ( I get mine from a good Italian store, but you can make your own of course), fontina cheese, fresh mozzarella, whipped ricotta, basil and the slow roasted tomatoes.

I don’t like to grill one big pizza, I tried it many times but the crust never turns out the way it should. I like to cut my dough ball in half and make two pizzas. The dough needs to be at room temperature for best results otherwise it keeps springing back when your trying to spread it out and form it nice and even.

Brush both sides with olive oil, place them on a baking sheet and take them out to the grill.

Heat your grill up nice and hot, burn up any bits, your grill grates should be impeccably clean, then take a paper towel soaked in oil and wipe it all over your grates.

I have a gas grill with three burners, all are lit but kept at medium heat. Now place your dough onto the grill, and don’t touch it!

You’re going to see it start to bubble, that’s a good thing, let it bubble all around, now take your tongs, lift it and see how it’s doing, you can move it, turn it, but don’t flip it over!

You want to get it nice and crispy, only on one side for now.

When it looks like this take it off and put it on your baking sheet cooked side up,it’s time to put the toppings on. Remember, the underside is still not cooked.

You can tell the dough is cooked in the photo above, it’s not pale, it doesn’t look gummy or raw, it’s sort of crunchy and slightly hollow if you tap on it, and it’s sturdy enough to stand up to your ingredients.

I put the grated fontina down first, then cut and scattered my fresh mozzarella around, added the slow roasted tomatoes and fresh basil. The whipped ricotta goes on after the pizza is finished.

Go back out to your grill now and place the uncooked side down onto the grates, close the lid and let the cheese melt, keep checking so the crust doesn’t burn lifting it with your tongs, again you want it nice and crispy like the top with a firm feeling to it, not limp.

It only takes a few minutes so don’t walk away!

The bottom is now cooked and crispy, the cheese has melted, the tomatoes with the garlic oil have permeated the whole pizza and the basil just tops it all off.

But hold on we’re not done!

Time for the whipped ricotta, mix it up and place it in a zip bag, cut off the tip and squeeze fluffy dollops onto your pizza.

Just one bite and you’ll be smitten! There are no words…

Here’s the link to make the slow roasted tomatoes and whipped ricotta, now get grilling!

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14 Comments Filed Under: Pizza, Summer Tagged: Grilled pizza, slow roasted tomatoes, whipped ricotta

Whipped Ricotta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes

September 10, 2015 by Marie 19 Comments

Before all the beautiful summer tomatoes quickly disappear, promise me you’ll make this! This is like the grand finale of tomato season for me, because soon we’ll be into the cooler weather, fall type foods, but I guarantee come mid January you’ll be dreaming about this like I do.

This combination was meant to be together, like yin and yang, the perfect match.

Creamy, light, fluffy and decadent, whipped ricotta slathered onto extremely crunchy bread and topped with the most intensely flavored slow roasted tomatoes, I can barely talk, it’s that good!

Ingredients: Great tomatoes, the best bread you can find and good quality fresh ricotta.

Normally when I roast tomatoes I put the oven on 400, toss them with olive oil and quick roast for around 15 or 20 mins, but this is a different process, there’s nothing quick about it, you’ll have to give up your oven for at least four hours.

The slow process is exactly why they taste so darn special, sort of like the difference between quick frying onions verses the slow process of caramelizing them, there’s no comparison in taste.

You want to get them to the point where most of the moisture is gone but yet they’re still a little moist and limp.

Now lets talk about the whipped ricotta, I like to call it Italian Hummus, you can dip it, spread it, whatever you like. I’ve been obsessing about it ever since I tasted droplets of it on top of a pizza this summer.

So simple to make, just place some good quality ricotta into a food processor or a mixer and blend it until it has a smooth and creamy almost fluffy consistency with no lumps at all, you might need a few drops of cream or half and half to help smooth it out. You can then finish it off by folding in some fresh herbs of your choice like, oregano, chives, basil, maybe a little parmesan cheese if you want, salt and pepper of course, and finally a nice drizzle of olive oil on top, just like hummus. I used chives and basil in mine but it’s a blank canvas so make it your own.

Pile it on some of the best bread you can find, toasted of course, then top it with those luscious tomatoes.

Honestly, you can make a meal out of this, it’s that good.

One bite and you’ll be hooked!

5.0 from 5 reviews

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Make this, it will change your life!

Author: Marie

Ingredients

great tomatoes
fresh thyme
garlic infused olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 250 degrees.
Slice tomatoes about a ¼ " thick, if cut too thin they will turn out like chips.
Place slices on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush each slice just on the top with olive oil that has been infused with one small crushed garlic clove.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper but be easy on the salt because it intensify's as it roasts and you don't want it to taste overly salty.
Spread fresh thyme leaves all over.
Place in oven and roast at that temp for 1 hour then reduce oven temp to 200 until tomatoes lose most of their moisture but are not completely dried out.
Mine took a total of 4 hours.
Store them single layer in an airtight container, in the fridge.

19 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers, Summer Tagged: crostini, ricotta, roasted tomatoes, slow roasted tomatoes, whipped ricotta

Zucchini Noodles with Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Cream

July 9, 2014 by Marie 49 Comments

Zucchini noodles have been all the rage for quite a while now, I’ve even made them my self and posted it here on my blog. In the past I’ve used my handy julienne slicer to create my “pasta” noodles but recently I bought a Spiralizer to see what all the hype was about.

I’m really not a person who has lots of big gadgets, quite frankly I don’t like cleaning all the different parts, but I’m going to make an exception with this one, I loved it!

What I like about it is that you get long continuous noodles that really look like pasta, it’s super healthy and light, a pasta alternative when you want one, it’s low carb, gluten free and you can create a million different recipes with it just like you can with regular pasta, and just like I did with this dreamy sauce, more on that below!

So far I’ve only tried it with zucchini and yellow squash but it’s also good with potatoes, butternut squash, onions, carrots, cucumbers, the list goes on and on and it comes with three different blades.

I was surprised how easy it was to use, just cut the tip and bottom off your zucchini, then slice it right in half and attach the big hunk to the slicer, now turn the handle and watch your noodles appear. I couldn’t stop, I was out of control I used five zucchini and two yellow squash, I had a ton when I was done and it all came out perfectly, nice and curly and long.

The feature I really love about this is that it actually cores your squash, see the picture above, all the seeds are contained which makes for a nice dry “pasta” and you know how wet zucchini can be. In fact I had so much leftover that I put it into zip bags and two days later the “pasta” was still dry, no moisture at all in the bag which is so typical of cut zucchini, that was a big plus for me!

Now for that dreamy sauce I paired it with, it came straight out of this book, by Domenica Marchetti. I’m always roasting cherry tomatoes, I’ve done it a zillion times, but never have I placed them into heavy cream and parmesan afterwards. Brilliant!

Wow! I knew I would love this recipe the minute I saw it in her book, it’s decadent and oh so flavorful and actually a little goes a long way. But what’s not to love about slow roasted tomatoes, cream, parmesan, basil and thyme, it’s a match made in heaven!

And you might not feel as guilty spooning it over healthy zucchini pasta noodles, I didn’t!

Zucchini Noodles with Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Cream

Ingredients

3 zucchini
1 yellow squash made into zucchini noodles by using either a Spiralizer or a julienne slicer.
For the Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Cream Sauce, adapted from Domenica Marchetti's, (The Glorious Vegetables of Italy)
I used a mixture of both yellow and red cherry tomatoes for added color
1 pint of yellow cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 pint of red cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
2 or 3 fresh thyme sprigs
small handful, chopped fresh basil
¾ cup heavy cream
¾ cup of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Arrange the cherry tomatoes cut side up on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle all over with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 275 degrees F for 1½ hours until puckered but still juicy.
Heat the butter in a saute pan over medium low heat, when the butter is melted and starts to foam add the shallot, cook until softened.
Scrape in the tomatoes and any juices that collected on the baking sheet.Add the thyme sprigs and pour in the cream, I added half of the cheese by sprinkling it around the tomatoes and into the cream.
Heat gently on low until it simmers. Turn off the heat and stir in basil.
In a larger saute pan, drizzle with oilve oil and place your zucchini noodles on top, gently cooking and carefully tossing until just slightly wilted and still al dente, just a few minutes.
Place zucchini noodles onto a serving platter and spoon the sauce right over the top, adding more parmesan cheese.