After last week’s spaghetti sauce, I had a few tomatoes left over. I sent a few home with a friend and attempted to foist a few on the neighbors upstairs (unfortunately, they are busy people and always on the way to someplace where showing up with a bag of tomatoes in hand is undoubtedly gauche). I made gazpacho, guacamole, and pico de gallo.
And I still had tomatoes left over.
I’d been tentatively looking at tutorials for how to dry tomatoes online and none of them seemed terribly difficult. At least, they couldn’t be anywhere near as difficult as trying to give people tomatoes in August was proving to be. (Perfectly good, organically grown, incredibly delicious and ripe tomatoes – just take ‘em already, sheesh!)
Preparation
- If you’re using Roma tomatoes, cut them in half if they’re small or quarters if they’re good sized. Squeeze them slightly to release excess juice. If you’re squeamish about seeds, you can remove them with your finger.
- Preheat the oven to 150°. Lay the tomatoes out on a cookie sheet and put it on the center rack of the oven. My tomatoes took about 8 hours to dry – I checked them every 3 hours. My method for determining done-ness was to poke them with my finger to see if any juice ran out.
- Once the tomatoes are leathery yet still pliable, remove them from the oven. There seem to be a number of options for storage, including:
- The Lo-Fi: Put the tomatoes in a plastic bag or jar in a cool, dark place or the fridge. They should keep for 6 months or so.
- The Fancy-Pants: Put the tomatoes in a pretty, pressed glass jar. Fill it with olive oil and some aromatic herbs. Place strategically on your counter underneath a positioned track light for maximum gourmet effect. Works best on granite countertops.
No comments yet: comments are still open.