I had end of season tomatoes that didn't taste like much that I wanted to use but this is actually a good mid-winter salad, something to make when tomatoes are little woolly spheres but you are dying for a taste of summer. Slow roasting the tomatoes intensifies the tomato taste, as do the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and the basil adds to the feeling that the possibility of sun and warmth exist. That being said, this also tasted very good as an entrée salad during a warm Autumn.
4 vine tomatoes or 2 beefsteak, it all depends on size
1 head lettuce of your choice, washed and dried
1/2 cup basil, leaves only, stems removed
1/4 cup finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 tsps olive oil
2 tsps Herbes de Provence
Salt and white pepper to taste
2 Tbsps vinaigrette of your choice (I usually make a sharp one of red wine vinegar and oil, no mustard so that the tomato taste really comes through).
Preheat oven to 225.
Quarter the tomatoes (cut in eighths for larger ones), drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the Herbes de Provence and generously with salt and white pepper. Bake until the tomatoes have shriveled at the edges and reduced in size by about a third but are still juicy looking not completely dried out. This took 2 hours in my oven.
Put your vinaigrette and the chopped sun-dried tomatoes in your salad bowl. Tip the tomato quarters in gently, as well as the juices in the pan. Mix gently and try to coat as much of the tomatoes with vinaigrette as possible. Set aside to cool.
When you are ready to eat, add the basil and tear in the lettuce leaves. Toss well.
