Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Balsamic Vinaigrette

I had some leftover cherry tomatoes sitting around last night, so I decided to roast them, as I am wont to do. As I removed the tomatoes from the oven, I noticed how glorious the olive oil they had cooked in looked, and decided to mix it with some balsamic to make a tomato-infused balsamic vinaigrette.

It was superb, and I ate it in about three seconds. Luckily, I managed to snap a picture of it before I started scarfing, so now I'm sharing the recipe with you.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 2 cups-ish cherry tomatoes, washed
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the tomatoes, dry them, and put them in a small roasting pan.
2. Add the olive oil, and do a kind of shake-toss thing until the tomatoes are all coated. Add a liberal amount (if you're me) of salt and pepper.
3. Roast tomatoes for 10-15 minutes, until the skins become crinkly and separate a bit from the tomatoes themselves.
4. Remove tomatoes from the oven, and scoop their oil into a small bowl.
5. Allow the tomatoes to cool while you whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper to form your vinaigrette.
6. Pour vinaigrette over tomatoes and serve!

As I mentioned, the balsamic inspiration happened a little late in the process. If I had put a bit more thought into the whole process, I would have probably made some sort of balsamic reduction for the tomatoes. Oh well!

Aesthetically, the presentation isn't very exciting. But the flavor combination was so lovely that I thought I'd share a typical weeknight dish from the Kittchen (by typical, I clearly mean not fancy because who's here to eat it but me?).