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Elevate any Italian dish with this easy to make Tomato Confit! This fresh and delicious preserved tomatoes are perfect as a side dish, appetizer, or condiment for your favorite Italian snacks. All you need is six simple, inexpensive ingredients and a little over an hour of your time to make this simply irresistible kitchen staple.
Chances are, even if you’ve never heard of tomato confit, you’ve enjoyed it before! Sneaking these perfectly preserved tomatoes into the most simple of dishes to dramatically elevate them is a trick that most home and restaurant chefs master fairly quickly. Trust me, after making a jar of homemade tomato confit, you’ll be reaching for it constantly. I like to make a new jar of it every time I run out… Which is pretty frequently, to be honest!
So, what exactly is tomato confit? Put simply, the word “confit” is a French word meaning preserved. This fancy name just means preserved tomatoes! However, they’re not preserved in the same way that pickles or canned vegetables are. These tomatoes are slowly cooked in rich olive oil before being cooled to room temperature and jarred in a container of your choice. Due to this specific method, the tomatoes hold their shape, yet yield what’s truly the most juicy and mouthwatering flavor ever.
Although this all may seem a bit fine dining, I promise that making tomato confit is wonderfully simple. Even if you’re brand new to the kitchen, you’ll have this mastered in no time! Plus, it’s always a bragging right to say that you can preserve your own vegetables, especially when they’re as delicious as this tomato confit. Whether you enjoy your tomato confit on a cracker with cheese or make a bunch of jars to hand out to friends, you’ll be so very glad you’ve mastered this easy recipe!
How to Make Tomato Confit
- Prepare. Preheat oven to 300˚F.
- Arrange. Arrange the cherry tomatoes, garlic and thyme in a baking dish. Drizzle with the olive oil until the tomatoes are almost submerged – use more olive oil if you have a larger dish. Season with a little salt and pepper.
- Bake. Bake the tomatoes for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes start to soften and burst.
- Cool. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and cool to room temperature.
- Serve or store. Transfer the tomatoes and oil to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
- Reserve. This is optional, but I like to save the oil once the tomatoes are gone for cooking chicken, eggs, drizzling on bread and more. It’s SO good and full of flavor!
Variations and Substitutions
The key to a perfect tomato confit lies in the simplicity of it all. At it’s base, this confit should be rich with bursting tomato flavor, which is accomplished by the slow and steady caramelization during cooking time.
However, if you find that you’d like to play around with the flavor profile, do so with fresh herbs. Basil, oregano and rosemary are all complimentary herbs for this tomato confit recipe. You can also use flavored olive oil to change the flavor of your tomato confit without adding a ton more ingredients.
How To Serve Tomato Confit
The most popular way to enjoy tomato confit is simply on a cracker or Crostini with the cheese of your choice. If you want a real treat, spread some Homemade Ricotta Cheese on a cracker or crostini before adding the tomatoes to it. I swear, ricotta and tomato confit go together better than peanut butter and jelly.
With that being said, there are so many other creative ways to use up these tomatoes, too! I sometimes like to toss a little bit of tomato confit in with my pasta sauces to give them that added fresh, sweet tomato flavor.
A few more of my favorite tomato recipes.
- Easy Oven Roasted Tomatoes
- Crisp and Easy Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
- Marinated Tomatoes
- Easy Tomato Jam
- Tomato Mozzarella Caprese Salad
- Easy Tomato Bruschetta
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Tomato Confit Recipe
Equipment
- baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 pound cherry tomatoes
- 10 garlic cloves
- 8-10 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300˚F.
- Arrange the cherry tomatoes, garlic and thyme in a baking dish.
- Drizzle with the olive oil until the tomatoes are almost submerged (use more olive oil if you have a larger dish.)
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Bake the tomatoes for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the tomatoes start to soften and burst.
- Remove the tomatoes from the oven and cool to room temperature.
- Transfer the tomatoes and oil to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you freeze this?
I haven’t tested the freezing yet. I’ll keep you posted!