Slow Roasted Vegetable Stacks

This is pretty much a method, rather than a recipe… Meaning you can substitute other vegetables in place of the ones I used but I highly recommend you try this combination, the combination of textures is awesome. And whatever you do, you must, you must make the Roasted Garlic Jam. You could try eggplant, squash, whatever you can thickly slice and whatever can hold up to a slow roast, you’re only limited by your imagination. That’s what I love about cooking-using my imagination and feeling free to do whatever I want.

The steps below are pretty wordy and seem complicated at first glance, but this is incredibly simple-I promise. I served our stacks tonight with chicken breasts that I slathered with a paste of dried rosemary, thyme, sage, salt, pepper, allspice and extra virgin olive oil, then pan-seared and baked until crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. It was a delicious meal and a great way to celebrate the end of our garden tomatoes.

-Preheat your oven to 250*

-Take 2 medium waxy potatoes, (red skinned, Yukon gold, Peruvian, anything but Russet or baking potatoes) and slice them about 1/3 inch thick lengthwise. Toss in a bowl of extra virgin olive oil until coated on both sides. Lay on a greased, foil-lined cookie sheet in a single layer and season liberally with salt and dried rosemary.
-Do the same thing to 1 large onion. Slice off the end, leaving the root attached and peel it. Then follow the same cutting line to cut into 3-4 thick ringed slices, be sure to leave the rings attached so you have slices, not individual onion rings. You want the onion slices to be the same thickness as the potato slices. Place in a single layer on the same cookie sheet as the potatoes. Season liberally with salt and dried rosemary.
-And lastly, do the same thing to 4-5 small tomatoes (I used a mixture of cherry and regular because it’s what I had). Make sure you slice your tomatoes the same thickness as the potatoes. You want them thick enough so they don’t disintegrate as they cook down in size. Place in a single layer on another greased, foil-lined cookie sheet. Also season liberally with salt and dried rosemary.

-Cut the top off 1 head of garlic, exposing most of the tops of the garlic cloves. Place in a greased piece of aluminum foil and drizzle the exposed top of the garlic bulb with more olive oil and season liberally with salt. Wrap the garlic up in the foil like a beggars purse and place on one of the cookie sheets.

-Place the potato and onion cookie sheet on the bottom/middle rack of your oven and the tomato cookie sheet on the top rack. Cook for 1 1/2 hours at 250*.

-Unwrap your garlic purse and when it’s cool enough to handle, give it a good squeeze over a small bowl to remove all the garlic from the skin. If you’ve never roasted garlic before, you will see that it cooks to the point where it actually becomes a sweet, garlicky paste. Mash the pasty cloves together and season with a bit more salt and add a little sugar. Taste-it should be salty and rich and sweet. (I like to call this a Roasted Garlic Jam because it sounds pretty.) Set aside.

-When all the vegetables are fully cooked, softened and a bit shriveled, carefully remove an onion slice and place on your plate. Slather the onion slice with some garlic jam. Top that with a potato slice and slather the potato with a little more garlic jam. Then comes a tomato slice. Repeat these steps as much as you’d like and season your stack with freshly cracked pepper and a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.
-(note- you will probably have leftover veggies after you make all your stacks, but they’re great for snackin’ on:)