Add This Surprising ‘Palate Cleanser’ to Your Thanksgiving Spread

I host a full Friendsgiving meal in early November because it’s truly heartwarming to bring my chosen family all together for a home cooked meal—but low-key. I also need to test side dishes to share with you all. This year, the most surprising dish I made wasn’t squash, or another spin on sweet potatoes, but a resurrection of summer fruit. I made a warm roasted tomato salad, and I think it may have earned its spot at the table forever. 

I think we can all acknowledge that the Thanksgiving meal is primarily a parade of luscious fats, umami, salt, and carbs. I have no issues with this. However, repetition of the same flavors can cause something called palate fatigue (often a term used in wine tasting): Nuanced flavors become harder to detect because your taste buds are exhausted. Including an acidic dish, like tomatoes, creates opposition, gives you the feeling of a “palate cleanser,” essentially kicking your buds back into gear.  

Revive cold-weather tomatoes

Yes, you could serve a raw tomato salad to access the fruit's bright acidity, but fall and winter tomatoes have a diminished flavor compared to the peak season ones we saw a few months ago. My guess is that’s why we don’t see them a ton on Thanksgiving tables. Luckily, a quick trip to the oven can change all that. 

Roasting dull winter tomatoes evaporates some of their water, thus concentrating their flavors, and it browns the bottoms, exhibiting the maillard reaction and caramelization of the natural sugars. That’s my long way of saying: Roasted tomatoes will have much more flavor than raw tomatoes in fall. Plus, it couldn’t be easier.

How to make a warm roasted tomato salad

I like plum tomatoes for this, but Campari tomatoes work too. I prefer these varieties because of their medium size, and they happen to soften nicely. Using my air fryer secret for roasting, sprinkle some salt into a bowl with the tomatoes. Then drizzle a teaspoon of oil into one palm. Rub your palms together and then rub each tomato with your oily hands. The salt will naturally get picked up. Place the tomatoes, either whole or halved, on an unlined baking sheet. Unlined baking sheets will give your tomatoes more color. 

Roast the tomatoes at 375°F for about 30 minutes, or—if they're whole—until they’ve just burst slightly. If they’re halved, they're done when the bottoms have some browning. (You can place halved tomatoes either cut-side down or skin-side down, but I've found that cut-side down is more prone to sticking.) Plating this dish is flexible, and there’s almost no way to screw it up. Carefully scoop the tomatoes onto a serving dish, and place hunks of burrata or fresh mozzarella in between the burst tomatoes. If you don’t like soft cheese, you can shave large sheets of Pecorino Romano over the top instead. 

Drizzle it all with some finishing olive oil, and a sprinkle of (fill in the blank): This is really where you can make the dish your own. I used dry Calabrian chili flakes this year. Perhaps you’d scatter chopped fresh basil over the top. Maybe chopped salted pistachios and za'atar are more your vibe. If you have garlic confit, you know what to do. But even if you skip the final garnish, you must crush some flaky salt over the top. 

The dish will look simple but tantalizing nonetheless. I actually prefer making dishes that have easily identifiable ingredients so I don’t have to field as many questions. You don’t need a ton—maybe one or two tomatoes per guest—to supply an acidic intermission halfway through the first helping. 

Warm Roasted Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

• 8-14 Campari tomatoes

• Neutral cooking oil to coat

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 ball burrata cheese (or fresh mozzarella)

• A drizzle extra virgin olive oil

• A sprinkle flaky salt

• Chopped basil, pistachios, chili flakes, or other garnish (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

2. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle the ½ teaspoon of salt over top. Drizzle a small amount of oil into your palms; it should be enough to coat the tomatoes. Rub your palms together and then rub all of the tomatoes, rolling them around to pick up the salt. Place the tomatoes on an unlined baking sheet, drizzle with any excess oil, and roast them for about 30 minutes or until they just begin to crack and burst. Cool them for a few minutes.

3. Put the tomatoes on a serving platter. Rip the burrata into six or seven hunks and dot the dish with the cheese. Drizzle the dish with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky salt and any additional garnish you like. Serve warm.