Christopher Kimball often says that he has not had a great tomato in decades, even those he has grown himself or tasted while traveling around the world. I am not that extreme—I can find a good tomato at the height of the season, but the common supermarket tomato is universally tasteless.

In Provence, a tian is both a casserole of sliced vegetables and the round, shallow earthenware vessel in which the dish is baked. Traditionally, it’s made with a melange of summer produce, usually tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant. Here, we narrow the focus for a tomato-only affair.

Don’t fret over sourcing a traditional earthenware tian—a pie plate will work just as well. Give it a good slick of olive oil, then sprinkle in a few cloves of minced garlic. The sliced tomatoes go in next, shingled in tight, concentric rings. Resist the urge to use juicy heirlooms here. Plum tomatoes, which are firmer and drier than their round counterparts, can withstand a long baking time and yield deep, rich, concentrated flavor.

Once the slices are shingled tightly in their vessel, give them a final, healthy drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grab a few fresh herb sprigs, either basil or rosemary, and tuck them between the slices. Finish with a couple more cloves of minced garlic and pop the whole thing in a hot oven.

As they bake, the heat drives off excess moisture from the fruits, concentrating their flavor. On a microscopic level, their sugars will caramelize, setting off a delicious and irreversible chemical reaction that creates all sorts of new volatile aroma compounds. On a macro level, they are collapsing in on themselves, transforming into something browned, bubbling and jammy, perfect for serving with crusty bread and little else.

It’s a dish so simple, and with such complex flavor, that I now look forward to the store-bought tomato.

Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.