sinful things to do with tomatoes

what you see is roasted tomatoes, nicely caramelized in a 450-degree oven, sitting on top of saffron and smoked paprika scented rice. what you see is gorgeousness. let us all worship at the altar of tomatoes and rice.

this is a slightly revised version of mark bittman's tomato paella from the new york times food section. i've made this three times now: once when i was sick and could barely taste anything, once for my parents while i was home, and once for a couple of my roommates.

in the article that accompanies the original recipe, mark bittman says that you have to try it at least once with just tomatoes, and i would have to say that with respect to this paella, i've become a tomato purist. for the purposes of this post i'll be ignoring any issues regarding the authenticity of this particular paella, because when something tastes this good, you ignore pretentions like authenticity. this rice is pretty fantastic: the smoked paprika and saffron give the rice an earthy, unplaceable flavor and aroma that's balanced by the tomatoes. if you make this in the summer, with homegrown or locally grown tomatoes, i guarantee you that the tomatoes will taste like tomato-infused sunshine.

about the recipe: i would say that the saffron is indispensable - it's unbelievably better with saffron, so go to the grocery store and get some, even if it's really cheap. also, get the best tomatoes possible. i've upped the tomatoes significantly from the original recipe because i found the proportion of tomato to rice to be a little too low in the first go. also, i have no idea what kind of rice mark bittman was using, but my paella consistently takes about 45 minutes in the oven to finish itself off. however, the upside of this is that the tomatoes get roasted and start caramelizing because they're under hot heat for so long, so overall this is a big win. it's a snap to prep - which for me, lover of involved mises en place, is saying something - and once it's in the oven, it's off your mind and you can do something else.

as for additions: surely you could add anything to this, but would you really want to mess with a good thing? if you must, i tried fried egg today, which was pretty good - fried so it's crispy. i made the eggs sunny side up, which was good, but i wish there had been a bit more crunch to them to contrast with the softness of rice and tomato. there's not really any need for meat, unless you were to do up some good-quality bacon and cook the onions/etc in the rendered fat; or perhaps chicken thighs or something like that - but no weak meats like chicken breast, because the acidity of the tomatoes can only be balanced by a nice earthy meat. whatever you do, make sure that you leave the pan in the oven long enough to let the rice start to develop a bit of crustiness - i didn't do this in the most recent permutation, and i missed it. this will also maximize your tomato caramelization time, which is ideal.

tomato paella
3 1/2 cups stock or water
2 to 2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
large pinch saffron threads
2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika) - i used smoked paprika from balducci's
2 cups spanish or other short-grain rice - i've tried both goya spanish rice and sushi rice, and slightly prefer the spanish rice
preheat oven to 450 degrees. warm stock or water in a saucepan. put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. toss to coat.

2. put remaining oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. stir in tomato paste, saffron, and paprika and cook for a minute more. add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. add liquid and stir until just combined.

3. put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. put pan in oven and roast in the middle of the oven, undisturbed, for 35-45 minutes. the rice is done if it's dry and just tender - take a taste to make sure. you can add more liquid if the rice is dry but not done yet, though this shouldn't be a problem. when rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes (it absorbs the liquids fully and gets a little stickier).

4. remove pan from oven. if you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

[serves 4-6]