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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

How To Oven Dry Tomatoes


Oven or Sun dried tomatoes are sweet with a highly concentrated tomato flavor and so good when marinated in olive oil and then can be used on bruschetta, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, and in antipasti. I watched several videos on YouTube on how to oven dry tomatoes and this was my favorite: OVEN DRY TOMATOES.
Once you dry the tomatoes they can be Marinated in Olive Oil  and kept in the fridge for several weeks.
Ingredients
Tomatoes not too overly ripe (You can use any type but you need a lot, the pint sized jar above was made from an entire large cookie sheet of tomato halves)
kosher salt
Directions
Clean and cut the tomatoes:
Plum Tomatoes cut in half
Large Tomatoes cut around the middle section into 4 pieces leaving a middle section to discard like in this photo........................................
Cherry & Grape Tomatoes cut in half
Now scrape out some of the seeds and juice, this will help them to dry out quicker but does remove some of the flavor so leave some inside.
Lay these on a cookie sheet (parchment or foil will help for ease of cleanup) cut side up , sprinkle with a very small amount of salt and place in a 250 oven for several hours. This will take literally any where from 1-5 hours! Because  it depends on the size and juiciness of the tomatoes. They will be ready when they are dry but still bendable and no juice is left in them you can test with a fork by giving it a press, I checked every hour or so and mine being rather big and juicy  took 4 hours.
Once they are cooled place these in a sterilized jar with a lid and store in fridge or marinate them in olive oil!

~Tips~
  • If you have a convection oven do use the fan, this will speed up the process! 
  • If they are not drying out press with a fork to release some of the juice but be careful as it squirts very hot juice out.
  • If some are finished before others remove them or else they will become too dry and brittle.
  • Place the fattest and juiciest pieces along the edge of the pan.

1 comment:

dixiepilgrim said...

I'm going to get some tomatoes to try this! Thank you, Ann!