Wessel Best Recipes

4 lbs ripe red tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
2 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
6-8 kalamata olives
Put the tomatoes on a baking sheet, and put them directly under a hot broiler. Watch them carefully‹as they blister and the skins turn black, turn them over. When the skins are well charred, remove the tomatoes from the oven, peel off the skins, and trim out their stem ends.
Cut the tomatoes into rather large pieces and put them back on the baking sheet. Peel the garlic cloves, cut them in half if they¹re very large, and scatter them among the tomatoes. Drizzle the tomatoes with 1 T. of olive oil, and sprinkle them with salt. Turn the oven down to 400 and put the tomatoes in the middle. Check them every 1/2-hour, and they start to show little charred spots again, stir them up, mixing the blackened spots in.
In about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, you should have a thickened mass of tomatoes, flecked with dark bits. Remove this from the oven, give it another stir, taste, and add salt only if needed.
Spoon the tomatoes into a shallow serving bowl, smooth the top, and drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil on top. Remove the pits from the olives and chop the olives coarsely. Sprinkle the chopped olives over the tomatoes. Serve with wedges of pita bread. Also recommended with hummus and I think I am going to use it on pasta also!