Roasted Tomatoes on Toast

Have you ever had a full English breakfast? I mean, a plate loaded up with baked beans, fried eggs, sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, bacon, sausage, and fried bread? If so, you understand the beauty of tomatoes with breakfast. If not, you should treat yourself immediately and report back.

While the full English spread is a treat on the weekends, it’d be tough to muscle your way through it on a Tuesday and then head off to the office. Unless napping is your job. In which case, I say go full English for the full week. For the rest of us, though, I recommend reigning it in just a bit and trying out roasted tomatoes on toast instead. Piled high with freshly grated parmesan and basil, it’s the perfect breakfast when you’re in the mood for something savory, and you don’t fancy an egg. (Although, I should mention here that this recipe pairs perfectly with a yolky fried egg.)

Either way, egg or no egg, I know you’ll love this quick and easy addition to your breakfast rotation. And I hope you’ll give it a try.

The Magic of Roasted Tomatoes on Toast

Fresh tomatoes are delicious. But roasting them takes them to a whole other level. And it’s dead easy to do. Just slice them in half, season them well with kosher salt, pepper, a touch of sugar, and a glug of good olive oil, and pop them in the oven to let them do their thing.

I find that Roma tomatoes are particularly well suited for roasting, as they’re a bit sturdier than most and don’t fall apart in the oven. Other good candidates include Campari tomatoes and plum tomatoes.

One little tip I’ll add here is that if your tomatoes aren’t lying flat on the baking sheet, you can turn them over and cut a very thin piece off of the underside to give them a flatter surface on which to sit. Doing so ensures that all the olive oily goodness stays in the tomatoes instead of spilling out onto the pan.

When they emerge from the oven, your tomatoes will be gorgeous and bursting with flavor. Their flavors will have concentrated and they’ll have soaked up all of the olive oil and seasoning.

Once your tomatoes are ready, all you need to do is toast some crusty bread (I like a good multigrain loaf or sourdough), butter it, top with tomatoes, and finish it off with freshly grated parmesan and basil.

What a beaut.

I hope you enjoy this breakfast as much as I do! If you choose to give it a whirl, be sure to let me know how it turns out.