Roasted Tomato, Artichoke and Mozzarella Salad

• Servings: 4.

Craving the taste of a wonderful tomato can be frustrating if it's mid-winter.  An alternative is to slow-roast plum tomatoes, making their flavor rich and sweet, a vast improvement on their typically pale flavor when raw.

In this salad, slow roasted tomatoes are combined with artichokes that are bought at your favorite charcuterie or deli, plus little balls of fresh mozzarella called bocconcini.  Because it takes several hours to roast the tomatoes, you need to either start this recipe the night before or early on the day you plan to serve it.

Because it's simple but time-consuming to roast the tomatoes, make extras to add to other salads or to use with pasta or simple preparations of fish or poultry.

Ingredients

• 10 medium to large plum tomatoes
• 4 to 6 roasted artichokes with stems, purchased at characuterie or Italian market
• 8 oz. fresh bocconcini (little round pieces of fresh mozzarella), about 16 to 20 pieces
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Roasting the Tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to 225° F.
2. Slice the tomatoes in half and depending upon their size, cut again into halves or thirds so that each tomato produces 4 to 6 pieces.
3. Place the pieces on a rimmed sheet pan and drizzle with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Using your clean hands, toss so that the tomato pieces are oiled and seasoned and are positioned on the sheet pan in a single layer with the cut side up.
4. Cook for 2 to 3 hours, checking every 30 minutes or so.  Remove from the oven when the pieces have shriveled and reduced and have begun to brown just a little on the edges.
5. Let come to room temperature.

If cooking in advance, let cool and store in a covered container either at room temperature or refrigerated until you're ready to use.

Assembling the Salad

1. If you've made the tomatoes in advance and they've been refrigerated, let come to room temperature so to take off their chill.
2. Cut the artichokes the long way into quarters.
3. Drain the bocconcini but do not rinse.
4. In a serving bowl combine tomato pieces with the artichokes and bocconcini.  Add a generous pinch of salt, several grinds of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil, enough to just slick the ingredients but not get soppy.  Toss to combine.

Serve immediately with pieces of good Italian bread.  A Pugliese or ciabatta would be good choices.