I always loved the idea of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil on an antipasto tray, but I didn’t’ care for the leathery things from the store or for the high price that they are, so I make my own.
Pick fully ripe but firm Roma tomatoes for this. Avoid large, juicy ones. There is really no fixed time for making this. Drying time depends on the water content of the tomatoes, the size and the thickness of the slices and the amount of tomatoes in the batch. I had a fairly large batch, so I started in mid afternoon, turned the oven down to 90F for the night and then I finished them the following morning.
*Tomatoes should be softly dry but not brittle. There should be no inner moisture left in them to avoid bacterial growth. If they turn black in parts they have been overdone and the temperature was probably too high.
OVEN DRIED TOMATOES
uniform sized Roma tomatoes pickling salt
• Preheat oven to 150F.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly drizzle with olive oil.
• Was and drip dry the tomatoes.
• Cut them in half lengthwise and place cut side up on the prepared cookie sheet.
• Sprinkle pickling salt over the tomatoes. You may add some herbs if you wish.
• Place in the oven and cook very slowly for 10 hours or longer.*
• When the tops are dry, turn the tomatoes over to dry the soft under bottoms.
• Remove from oven and let cool.
• Pack into freezer bags and freeze them. Dried tomatoes retain their color and flavour in the freezer for about a year.
• Shortly before you are ready to eat them pack some tomatoes into a sterilized jar and top it up with olive oil. The leftovers can be safely refrigerated for a couple of months.
