A pound of sweet cherry tomatoes, a hot oven and a tin of white beans — 30 minutes later you have the kind of simple, oven-bubbled summer dinner that feels like magic.
Is July the most lethargic cooking month? I don’t mean that pejoratively. In our productivity-obsessed culture we often scorn apathy, yet what if we leaned into it instead? It’s hot. The days are long. If midsummer calls for a little laziness and loosened to-do lists, I’m willing to try. I might even pencil it in next week if I shuffle things around.
Fortunately there’s little reason to undertake heroic cooking when gardens and farm stands are overflowing with produce that’s excellent with almost no intervention — think heavy, sweet cherry tomatoes. If I’m going to turn the oven on, it will be for a recipe like this. It uses a pound of tomatoes and is one of my favorite summer meals. These aren’t slow-roasted cherry tomatoes that semi-dehydrate into candy; they’re quick-roasted with olive oil and garlic until bubbly and otherworldly. The salty juices concentrate in the oven into a rough, glorious sauce that the beans soak up. I finish it with a handful of basil.
While you can certainly eat straight from the baking dish, it makes an exceptional crostini when ladled warm over toasted bread. The flavors are endlessly tweakable: add briny ingredients such as anchovies, capers, or cured black olives; swap in prepared pesto for fresh basil; finish with parmesan, pecorino or even burrata. But if you make it only with tomatoes, garlic, beans and basil, you won’t feel like anything’s missing.
Video:
Field | Info |
|---|---|
Servings | 2 to 4 |
Time | 30 minutes |
Source | Smitten Kitchen |
Notes | Quick roast; serves as a bowl or crostini topping |
Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
Olive oil | 5 tablespoons, divided |
Very ripe cherry tomatoes | 1 pound (455 grams), halved |
Garlic cloves, peeled | 6 small (author notes “but who is counting”) |
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper or red pepper flakes | To taste |
Cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed | 1 (15-ounce) can |
Fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced | 1/4 cup, loosely packed |
Optional to serve | Toasted bread/crostini, additional oil |
Heat the oven to 400°F. Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil into the bottom of a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Arrange the tomato halves in the dish, cut side up. Nestle the garlic cloves among the tomatoes. Drizzle with another 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and many grinds of black pepper. Roast until everything is bubbly and juicy, about 20 minutes. Remove the dish to a trivet or cooling rack and use a fork to lightly mash the tomatoes and garlic (be careful of any splatter); the tomatoes won’t be fully soft yet. Add the drained beans, season with more salt and pepper if needed, and stir to combine. Return the dish to the oven for 5 minutes. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, scatter with basil and eat immediately, either as is or spooned over crostini.
Note: Many of my favorite bean dishes started as pasta sauces swapped for beans, not from a vendetta against pasta. This recipe grew from a baked cherry-tomato sauce adapted from Nancy Harmon Jenkins; I skip the crumbs and cheese.
Tip |
|---|
Use very ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes — they become intensely flavorful when roasted quickly. |
Roast at 400°F until the tomatoes are bubbly (about 20 minutes), mash lightly, add beans and roast 5 more minutes. |
Serve warm over crostini or straight from the dish — both work beautifully. |
Optional add-ins: anchovies, capers, cured olives, prepared pesto, parmesan, pecorino or burrata. |
Fresh basil finishes the dish; one herb is fine — no need for an array. |
