Summertime is prime time for the Farmer's Market.  I mean, the markets are exploding with homegrown goodness like blackberries, peaches, blueberries, tomatoes, zucchini, squash and garlic. I could go on and on. Half the fun is discovering that special buy for the day like a particularly good batch of berries or a lively bunch of rainbow chard.  Last Saturday, it was this colorful assortment of tomatoes. I picked up two pints to bring home.  I do have tomatoes in my garden, but they have yet to ripen, so I sprung for a good local buy. Win-win. 

The next part of Farmer's Market fun is deciding what to do with your special purchases. I decided to oven roast my pint-sized buddies. Roasting tomatoes really concentrates their flavor and can be a great addition to any dish that needs a little something to make it sing.  I cut my tomatoes in half and spread them onto a baking sheet and set my oven to 350 degrees. 

Next, I tossed my lovelies in olive oil, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some evaporated cane juice to bring out the natural sweetness of the tomatoes and to help them caramelize. 

The tomatoes roasted for about 50 minutes. They will  shrink up and caramelize around the edges.  Notice the oily sludge on the bottom right picture. I couldn't help scraping some of the sweet, oily goodness off the baking sheet once I pulled the tomatoes out of the oven. 

These colorful buddies made it into a glass storage jar before landing in a summer linguine dish the next night. I cooked whole wheat pasta and tossed it with shredded zucchini and squash(from my garden), garlic, red pepper flake and parmesan. I gave a final toss with the oven roasted tomatoes and it certainly made all the difference. Party in my tummy. 

I can't wait to see what the market has in store for me this week. I look forward to sharing my finds and recipes with you next week. As always, please feel free to share your finds. I'd love to see your local buys.