The best Tomatoes Provençale
This Tomatoes Provençale recipe is incredible. Melt in your mouth, velvety tomatoes with a vibrant pesto, made from scratch, and vegan too!
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 50 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 9-10 tomatoes on the vine
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- pinch of flaky French Salt
- 1.5 tbsps of Herbes de Provence
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 3 cups of fresh basil
- 1/3 cup of pine nuts
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- pinch of flaky French salt
Instructions
- 1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- 2
Rinse your tomatoes and chop the top off of each one as well as a little off the base so that your tomato can stand straight up in the pan. I suggest using a serrated pairing knife - the serrated edge cuts through the tomato skin much better than a straight edge.
- 3
Using your pairing knife, cut the core out of the tomato (careful not to cut all the way through)
- 4
Drizzle a little olive oil in your baking dish and arrange the tomatoes in the pan.
- 5
I used a copper Mauviel round pan in the photos, but you can use the oven safe dish that you have on hand. If you are using a cookie sheet please keep an eye on the cooking time as it may be shorter.
- 6
Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes as well as the salt and herbes de provence.
- 7
Bake for 40 minutes uncovered on the middle rack until the tomatoes are soft but still intact.
- 8
(if you are making a Roast Chicken at the same time, add the tomatoes about an hour into your cooking time, on the rack underneath your chicken)
- 9
Meanwhile, make your fresh pesto. In a food processor, mix the garlic and the pine nuts until finely chopped.
- 10
Add the fresh basil and olive oil. Mix again until the Pesto is well mixed and finely chopped.
- 11
Carefully remove the baking dish from the oven. Spoon one tablespoon of pesto in the center of each tomato.
- 12
Return to the oven for another 10 minutes
- 13
Allow to cool for a few minutes then serve.