Yes, you can roast your tomatoes in the grill, instead of in the oven and use them them in pasta or salsas or eat them like candy. I set up the grill for slow, long cooking with a half snake of briquettes to get me about 4 hours at about 300°-350°. The tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and thyme, sit on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. You just walk away and think of how to use them. I decided to put them in a bacon avocado sauce over pasta.
If you’ve never cooked your avocado in a sauce, try it. When cooked, it stays green even the next day in the fridge. Just a simple sauce of mashed and sauteed avocado with a little cream and Parmesan is great over pasta. I gilded the lily with bacon and the roasted tomatoes.
Bacon, Roasted Tomato, and Avocado Pasta
Grilled Roasted Tomatoes
Set up the grill for indirect, long cooking, using the snake method. I used a snake that went halfway around the kettle grill and lasted 4 hours at around 300°.
- Place halved and seeded tomatoes on a large sheet pan lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. I had 11 tomatoes of various types, mostly plum, with a few round ones.
- Drizzle olive oil over all the tomatoes.
- Sprinkle with kosher salt, ground black pepper, and dried thyme.
- Place pan on grill cooking grate and cover for about 4 hours. Tomatoes should be shriveled and browned around the edges, but still moist. The bottoms will be browned, but not burnt. Check after 2 hours to see how your grill is doing.
- Remove tomatoes to cool, then to a bowl and set aside.
Making the Sauce
1 lb thick-sliced bacon
2 tablespoons roasted garlic or 1 tablespoon fresh grated garlic
4 ripe avocados
1/2 pint heavy cream
olive oil
roasted tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/2 lb cooked pasta—I used whole wheat chiocciole, which I think are supposed to look like snails
pasta water to thin sauce
salt & pepper to taste
- Cook the bacon until browned and chewy. Remove to drain and cool, then cut in large chunks.
- Add about 2 tablespoons olive oil to 1 tablespoon of reserved bacon fat in skillet and heat over medium-low heat. Add roasted garlic and the scooped out flesh from the avocados. Heat, mashing with a potato masher or fork until creamy, but with some chunks of avocado for texture.
- Stir in heavy cream and continue heating over low heat or a lower simmer.
- Stir in tomatoes and bacon.
- Stir in hot pasta water to thin sauce to a good consistency to serve with pasta. I used 1/2 cup of pasta water.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese.
- Stir in cooked pasta until well coated.
- Serve in bowls with more cheese.
