Oven-dried tomatoes!

For the second year in a row, we have random tomatoes in our yard. Last year was a single plant that situated itself perfectly in a corner of the chain link fence. The fence supported the plant that grew to be about four feet tall and produced a couple of hundred tomatoes, easily. I mean that literally. Half of the plant broke off under the weight of the green tomatoes so I made that bunch into pickles. If memory serves, I got about five quarts of green tomato pickle out of it. Incredible. This year, in a totally different part of the yard, we noticed five plants that had sprouted in one of the garden beds. They are a variety of grape, cherry and an interesting oblong type that defies categorization. So far, we have collected more than three pounds--and that's just from when we started keeping track. A member of a gardening group I belonged to posted a suggestion for oven-drying tomatoes. Great idea!

Some of the cherry tomatoes.

And the oblong ones.

Today's very small cast! You'll also need olive or avocado oil if you don't eat the tomatoes right away.

I mean, look at how gorgeous these guys are! I washed them (the garden is 100% organic because of the turtles) and cut them in half lengthwise.

The tomatoes are placed cut side up on parchment-lined baking trays.

In order to control the salt distribution, it is much more efficient to pour some into your hand and use the other hand to sprinkle the salt around.

I roasted the tomatoes for two hours at 250F and then decided an extra hour wouldn't hurt. Though the tomatoes look shriveled, there is still a fair amount of moisture in them.

I poured a little extra-virgin olive oil into the bottom of a jar along with some minced garlic and torn basil leaves.

I filled the jar with tomatoes and topped with a little more basil and enough oil to cover the tomatoes. This batch filled 2-1/2 half pint jelly jars. So that would be...1-1/4 pints total. Math...

Then Tom came in from gardening with another whole pound! I decided to just keep going so I made another batch. This time I used avocado oil to cover the tomatoes and added black peppercorns along with the basil.

The long, slow roasting concentrated the sugars and made the finished product wonderfully sweet with just a bit of tang. Even Chris, who doesn't care for tomatoes unless they're in a sauce or a sandwich, said they were pretty good. The tomatoes can be tossed with pasta or served as a condiment. It's a great way to use up all those tomatoes!

Here's the promised link:

Oven "Sun-Dried" Tomatoes