Burnt tomatoes are NOT roasted tomatoes. They are tomatoes (usually small cherry types) that have had the sliced side charred to black without cooking the inside of the tomato at all. Ideally the inside of the tomato shouldn’t get warmer than room temperature. Any small tomato works well with this technique, my favorite to use is sungold if it’s available.
You can make these on a stove top with a cast iron griddle or skillet, but it is hard to get high enough temps on a stove to properly char them without cooking them through. The amount of smoke generated by making these also makes it difficult to do indoors. But try it if you like, I’ve had mixed success and filled a number of houses with smoke doing this indoors.
The first step in making them is to slice the tomatoes in half. Be sure to use a knife that is thicker than the tomatoes, it is very important to get a very flat side when slicing them, and it is most easily done with a wide knife (a standard chef’s knife is perfect). It is also important to not salt the tomatoes before burning them – salt granules will make it harder to get good contact between the tomatoes and the griddle. Wipe a plate with oil to place the slice tomatoes on (cut side down). Too much oil will result in a fried tomato instead of producing the char you want.
Once you have a good hardwood or lump charcoal fire going place a clean cast iron griddle over the fire and allow it to preheat – generally 10 minutes will be enough time. Once it is preheated wipe it with oil to make sure it is as clean as possible. If properly preheated the oil should smoke immediately and possibly even burst into flame on contact with the griddle – this is fine (perhaps even perfect).
Place the tomatoes cut side down one at a time in rows. If you want to have consistency in how burnt they are you will need to remove them in the same order you placed them on the griddle – use whatever system works best for you to do this.
You will know they are ready to take off the griddle when a black char starts to show up at the edges of the tomatoes (this usually takes 1 to 5 minutes on a hot griddle). Using a sharp edged spatula remove the first one you placed to check if it’s done. If is done remove the next one, and so on. After they’ve been removed salt them and add whatever other seasoning you wish.
You can use these as you would any other tomato – in a salad, relish, salsa, pizza topping, whatever!
