A tomato should not be an obligation. A tomato should be a looked-forward-to summer treat. A tomato should drip like a peach. Tomato juices ought to quite often mingle with mayonnaise in between slices of good bread in August. Cherry tomatoes should burst open in a hot pan slicked with olive oil in early July. What tomatoes should not do however is show up on every burger bun everywhere on top of the iceberg lettuce. Cherry tomatoes have no place in a salad bowl in February. This is an unacceptable abuse of food. When a really good tomato cannot be had, skip it. Why not make a confit instead? Slow cook some onions in olive oil along with some high quality canned tomatoes and their juices, a pinch of thyme, salt, pepper, and brown sugar, and you have a topping for your burger worthy of any cook out. This happens to be the way we topped our burgers all winter at the dining room table accompanied by oven fries, and I just never quite got around to sharing it with you. But I thought that maybe right now, at just this instant, you might be making some sort of grilling plans this weekend that called for a rich zesty condiment, and you might also be impatiently waiting for those first Brandywines to ripen on the vine, and so here, try this instead of buying a subpar tomato, or reaching for the bottle of ketchup. Happy Fourth of July!
Spicy Tomato Onion Confit
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
- 1 14.5 ounce can roasted tomatoes with chilies
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
In a small sauce pan, bring all ingredients to a boil. Turn down the heat to the barest simmer and let cook, stirring occasionally until reduced to a jammy texture, about one hour.
Use anywhere you would like a beautiful summer tomato, or grilled onions, or a blob of ketchup - on top of a burger for example.
Makes about 2 cups.
