Name/Recipe of the cooked/deflated tomato dish from Persian restaurants.

August 25, 2023 5:39 PM

There's a cooked tomato side-dish/garnish I really like. I've only seen it in Persian restaurants in the U.S. The tomato is served steaming-hot and has been prepared in a way where the skin is left mostly intact, but it's volume is reduced/deflated by around 50%, leaving a wrinkly lump. Also seems like there's some additional seasoning going on. I'd like to know what this dish is called, & find some good overviews on how a novice might replicate this dish at home. Many thanks.
posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj to Food & Drink (3 answers total)

I think you are looking at whole roasted tomatoes. Here’s a search string with some good results to get you started:

Search
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:00 PM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is just what happens to tomatoes when you roast them in on oven, the cell walls that help them keep their shape break down, and this releases a lot of the liquid it contained within the cells out onto the pan And some of which evaporates in the oven.

In one of the recipes from the search results ToodleyDoodley links above, they recommend sprinkling and salt, rubbing with a little olive oil, and sticking them in the oven at 400F, and hitting them under the broiler for like three minutes at the very end of cooking to get a nice blistery char on it, and I think that’s a pretty good way to go.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:16 PM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's an Armenian dish as I've seen it, not Persian, but roasted tomatoes with za'atar are very yummy. This recipe splits them in half but you don't have to.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:35 AM on August 26, 2023 [2 favorites]