Sun Dried Tomatoes ~ Kind Of...

As avid veggie gardeners we are never short of tomatoes at the Schwark homestead! I can tomatoes so we can enjoy a bit of summer in the middle of winter. If I showed up at our weekly pool gatherings w/out my homemade salsa I would probably be asked to leave and not come back until I had a bowl of salsa in hand! Needless to say, with an over abundance of tomatoes, even if one shares with friends, one always has more than they can eat in one summer! Soooo... I decided to make Sun Dried Tomatoes. Well, sort of sun dried. Does Oven Dried count? In my opinion it's much better than slicing tomatoes and leaving them outside to dry. Ummm, bugs and all kinds of critters could check them out. Even if they are covered in cheese cloth.

So, I searched the internet for a recipe and this is what I found! (from homecooking.com)

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours, 15 minutesIngredients:
•5 pounds (2.5 kg) Roma (oval) tomatoes
•Fine sea salt
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. (100 degrees C.; gas mark 1), or the lowest setting possible. Remove the oven racks.

Trim and discard the stem ends of the tomatoes. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, side by side and crosswise on cake racks set on the oven racks. Do not allow the tomatoes to touch one another. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Place racks back in the oven and bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and feel dry, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Check the tomatoes from time to time: They should remain rather flexible, not at all brittle. Once dried, remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow them to thoroughly cool on cake racks. (Smaller tomatoes will dry more quickly than larger ones. Remove each tomato from the oven as it is dried.)

Transfer the tomatoes to zipper-lock bags. The tomatoes will last indefinitely.

Yield: 2 cups

Now it took longer than 6 hours for some tomatoes (they weren't uniform in size) I didn't use the salt and I didn't have 5 lbs. I just cut up a few tomatoes or so and dried away!

Slicing the Romas

Ready for the Oven

Going to take some time - be patient

Starting to Dry

Ready for Salads/Pasta/Pizza

Try the recipe you will be happy you did!