CUATRO TOMATES
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While José Andrés calls this tomato appetizer "Tomato Saganaki," I like to called it "Cuatro Tomates," in honor of how many freakin' kinds of tomatoes go into it. I found this dish to be a major hassle to prepare, but it tasted absolutely delicious, particularly on the homemade sourdough bread that we served it with.
Tomato Saganaki is rich, deeply spiced, complex, cheesy, and bright. It's an entire (vegetarian) meal unto itself, when served with bread, and it's a real show-stopper of an appetizer.
There are two sub-recipes that you need to utilize to execute this dish. Ultimately, I think they're both worthwhile in terms of realizing a delicious final product.
The first is blanching and peeling your cherry or grape tomatoes (huge pain in the butt, actually important and worth it). The original recipe called for five seconds in boiling water to blanch, but I found that some tomatoes took more like 45-60 seconds before they were ready to peel. Your mileage may vary.
The second is making a spiced tomato sauce (medium-sized pain in the butt, but the sauce is really quite delicious and you get plenty left over.) Difficult to sufficiently emphasize how tasty this sauce is, it may be my new go-to homemade pasta sauce.
If you don't feel like making sourdough bread to serve this with, consider stopping by Holy Land or another Middle Eastern bakery and picking up pita or Afghan flatbread.
TOMATO SAGANAKI
1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, blanched and peeled (see below)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
8 sundried tomato halves or about a cup of sundried tomato pieces
1 garlic clove, minced
2 scallions, trimmed, green and white parts finely chopped
2 Tbsp ouzo or gin
1 cup Spiced Tomato Sauce (see below)
1/2 cup grated Kefalograviera or Manchego cheese
1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tbsp minced chives
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (Aleppo if you can find them)
Flaky sea salt
Preheat oven to 200 F. Toss the peeled tomatoes with sugar, salt, and 2 Tbsp olive oil, and then spread on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment. Roast until tomatoes begin to dry and slightly shrivel, about 75 minutes. Do not let the tomatoes brown.
Cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water to hydrate for 15 minutes, then drain and dice.
Warm 2 Tbsp olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in scallions, slow cooked cherry tomatoes, and sundried tomatoes. Cook for 1 minute to meld flavors, then pour in ouzo and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown garlic bits.
Stir in the tomato sauce, Kefalograviera cheese, hot pepper flakes, and cumin, and cook until cheese has completely melted, about 3 minutes.
Spoon the tomato mixture into a shallow serving dish. Crumble the feta over the tomatoes; sprinkle with chives, oregano and hot pepper flakes; drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Serve with flatbread or sourdough.
TO BLANCH AND PEEL CHERRY OR GRAPE TOMATOES: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Toss your tomatoes into the water for 15-30 seconds, and pull them out and plunge them into ice water. Most will begin to split and be easy to peel within a few seconds. Return any that stubbornly resist peeling back to the hot water for another 15-30 seconds and try again. I went 3-4 rounds with some of my tomatoes, but your mileage may vary depending on variety / ripeness / etc.
SPICED TOMATO SAUCE: Warm 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add 1/2 medium yellow onion (thinly sliced) and cook for about 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Add a bay leaf and a cinnamon stick, and cook for about a minute. Add 2 garlic cloves (thinly sliced) and cook another 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Stir in 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes (quartered, cored, and rough chopped), and a 1 cup of canned diced tomatoes plus 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp oregano. Cook over medium heat until reduced by a quarter, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, remove and discard cinnamon stick and bay leaf, then use an immersion blender to blend sauce while drizzling in 1/2 cup olive oil.