Today's Dining section was all about restaurants across the country, but there was still plenty for us stay-at-home cooks. Here are the highlights of this week's Dining In pieces in the New York Times Dining section.
Doctored Up in the Oven - First up, Mark Bittman follows up his newfound love of sun-dried tomatoes with another off-season tomato pick: canned tomatoes roasted in the oven for deeper flavor. This sounds like a great trick - anyone tried it? He makes a Wintertime Tomato Soup to show off their flavor.
More below, including why cooking is more revealing than sex (according to Alex Witchel)...

• Racket in the Kitchen, Ruckus in the Crib: Cooking with a baby in the house is nervewracking - no more slapping pizza and slamming ovens. Cooking for three - quietly. Keith Dixon offers quiet recipes for Fish Soup With Fennel and Pernod and Roast Chicken With Shallots, Thyme, Bacon and Garlic Confit Sauce.
• A Rule Just Waiting to Be Broken: Eric Asimov says that red wine and oysters actually do go together.
• One Pot: Meatball Sausages (Soutzoukakia Smyrneika): Are you loving these One Pot recipes as much as we are? This recipe for Greek meatballs flavored with onion, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg is going on our to-make list.
• A Stew With a Past and a Future: Alex Witchel says that cooking for people is more revealing than a one-night stand, and makes Polish Hunter’s Choucroute (Bigos), a hearty winter sausage dish.
(Top image: Evan Sung for the New York Times)

Elizabeth Apron fro...

Yes...I make a tomato soup w/roasted canned tomatoes and it is fantastic.
Yum!
Cooks Illustrated also suggests roasting canned tomatoes for their Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup. It's so easy, and does make for some tasty soup!
Whole Foods has their own brand of canned, roasted tomatoes. I've used them in chili, and they definately improved the tomato flavor.
I've been roasting canned tomatoes since reading a recipe Jack Bishop's "A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen." I've always thought it was a good technique to add richness to the soup without cream. Unlike Bittman's recipe, I usually puree the soup to make it feel all the more luxurious.
This soup is amazing. i just made some and I am eating it as I type. It is very light and will make a great tomato soup all year.