I have a problem… with raw tomatoes. I just don’t like them. They’re okay in things like pico de Gallo or anything that has enough other flavors to cover up the raw tomato taste. This is, at worst, an occasional minor inconvenience for me. However, it completely eliminates Caprese salad from my diet. Those beautiful salads made of fresh mozzarella, sweet basil and slices of tomato drizzled in olive oil. They look so lovely, but I just can’t deal with the raw tomato. Well, this Arugula with Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Burrata recipe might have solved that problem. Let’s find out!
An off-season version of Caprese salad made with roasted grape tomatoes, burrata and peppery arugula.
The Ingredients
One of the appealing things about this recipe was the fact that it only has a handful of ingredients. I had to shop for most, but my regular grocery store had most everything.
One thing that did cause me some mild confusion was the type of tomatoes. The title says cherry tomatoes, but the ingredients list calls for grape tomatoes. I was going to buy cherry tomatoes, but the store only had grape. Decision made.
Unfortunately, the packages of tomatoes weren’t measured in pints. They were measured in pounds, and I’m clueless on how to convert a measurement of volume to weight. I ended up just guessing that two pounds of grape tomatoes would be enough since it looked like a lot.
And I picked the day they were out of fresh basil. Fortunately, I had some lightly dried basil on hand, so I substituted that. One container is the equivalent of a large bunch of fresh basil, so I used about half to approximate a small bunch of basil.
The Process
Preparing this salad wasn’t difficult at all, but it did take some time to roast the tomatoes. Three hours, to be specific. I planned to have this salad with dinner, so I started it just after lunch.
Since I’m a perfectionist, I cut each tomato individually and didn’t use any shortcuts. (I know, I’m nuts!) It didn’t take long, though, and I had them ready to go into the oven in seven minutes.
It’s not in the ingredients list, but the instructions say a sprig of rosemary or thyme may be added to the tomatoes. I happened to have some fresh oregano, so I added it to the sheet pan. I’m not sure it imparted much flavor, or it was extremely faint if it did.
I finished putting the salad together once the tomatoes were done. It gave them a few minutes to cool down, and they did cool down pretty quickly.
Although I served the salad on a platter, it was easier to mix it in a large bowl and transfer it to the platter. That way the liquid from the roasted tomatoes thoroughly coated the arugula leaves and acted like a salad dressing.
Once they were transferred to a plate, I finished up by topping the salad with the burrata, olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Here’s how my time was spent on this recipe:
- 7 minutes to prepare the tomatoes
- 4 hours to roast the tomatoes
- 4 minutes to mix the salad
- 4 hours 11 minutes total
