The Best Roasted Tomatoes start with two Skye Gyngell tricks*

Trick 1. Roasting tomatoes require roominess

Trick 2. Roast tomatoes dry (that is, without any oil)

*Caveat for all diligent recipe followers: not all advice from cooks should be followed to the letter. When I first started working in Skye’s kitchen (and being way too eager to please) I took her on her word when she said ‘green vegetables should be boiled in water as salty as the sea’- advice she also writes in her first cookbook. It was probably my second day in her kitchen and man, did I wish I could backspace on time when she tasted a mouthful of my perfectly-tender-and-so-salty-you-can’t-even-swallow chard! With five minutes until the start of service, I wasn’t being celebrated for my editorial input. Even my fellow cooks weren’t laughing at me. This little incident did, however, give me the opportunity to learn yet another Skye trick: if you’ve accidently oversalted something, try a squeeze of lemon, it may just tame your overzealousness.

Not this time.

With this caveat in place, I’ve also revised Skye’s proportion advice for seasoning tomatoes before they roast. She suggests equal quantities of sugar, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. I use equal quantities of sea salt and sugar but only a quarter the quantity of black pepper. Sprinkle this mixture all over the halved tomatoes and put them in the middle of a 160 C oven.

As I speak the tomatoes are reducing still, and by their smell, I’d say they’re just about where I’d like them to be. How much you roast your tomatoes is up to you. I usually stop when they look something like this:

Once they’re out of the oven, as quickly as humanly possible remove them from their syrupy spots on the tray and crowd them into a dish. This is important because in a matter of half minutes, those syrupy spots will turn to glue, fixing the skins of the tomatoes onto the tray.

Looking at these caramelized juices, I remember how rinsing flavour down the sink leaves me feeling nihilistic. If you're the same, try gently dissolving them, like you would other roasting juices. Place the pan directly on the stove and with a very little water or stock, gently rub the pan with a wooden spoon until the caramel gives way and dissolves again. Let any excess liquid simmer away and then pour this syrup back onto your tomatoes.

Use the tomatoes straight away, in a salad with lentils, roasted cauliflower and Persian feta, perhaps. Or marinate them overnight. Drizzle them with olive oil, some freshly chopped or torn herbs, maybe a few thin slices of garlic and eat them smashed into your toast tomorrow morning.