Home Made Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ok, not strictly about FreeBSD, but hey, even hackers have to eat sometimes!

I have a garden full of tomato plants this year and as a consequence, have a ton of fresh and tasty tomatoes. Tomatoes are great and luckily there are plenty of ways to eat them - in curries, salads, italian pasta sauces, on bruschetta/ciabatta/toast lol - but I decided to try something a bit different for a change, especially with a view to keeping them over a long period of time. So... I decided to try making some sun dried tomatoes.

In the UK we don't get a lot of sunshine - well, I say that close to September/Autumn whilst looking out of the window at grey skies and generally miserable weather even though it wasn't too bad a summer a couple of months back. Anyway, the point is we don't have the sun to dry out tomatoes naturally like in the Med. So... instead I use the oven!

Ok it's not 'natural', but the end result can be just as tasty with a tiny bit of care not to let the heat in the oven get too hot.

I'd type out a 'recipe' but there's really not a lot to it - a pan full of tomatoes cut in half with salt and olive oil sprinkled over, that's all there is to it. Couldn't be much easier. Bah what the heck:

INGREDIENTS:
Tomatoes - enough to fill a roasting tin when sliced in halves
Olive Oil - enough to generously cover each tomato half in the roasting tin
Salt - not too much, just a sprinkle on each tomato half
1" deep roasting tin
Jars - enough to keep the tomatoes in!

METHOD:
Cut the tomatoes into halves and place in the roasting tin cut side up. Lightly sprinkle salt over the tomatoes, not too much, just enough to flavour them and draw the water out of them to help with drying out. Drizzle olive oil over each tomato, just enough to coat each one. Excess olive oil in the pan isn't a problem as the oil will be used to store the tomatoes in jars.

(In addition to the above, if you like garlic and herbs they make a great addition and add amazing taste to the finished product. It's easy enough to blitz the garlic up with the olive oil before pouring, then add the herbs to the tomatoes before pouring over the garlic oil. Be warned though if you don't like the smell of garlic/are a vampire(!), open windows and doors! Personally I love garlic :))

After preparing the tomatoes in the roasting tin, place the tin in an over on the lowest possible heat - simmer at most. As a general rule, if you can't touch the roasting tin because it's too hot, then the oven's too hot and needs either turning down or the door left open for 10 mins or so.

Leave them in the oven for at least 4 hours - even 2 hours is ok, but the longer the better, 12 hours would be great :)

After taking them from the oven, put the tomatoes in sterilized jars (wash em well :)) and make sure to pour the olive oil on top so that all the tomatoes are covered. Leaving anything uncovered won't help it keep as long.

For tomatoes with garlic and anything else in like herbs, make sure to keep them refrigerated until eating - they keep about a month or so. The oil is excellent as salad dressing, don't let that go to waste.

If the tomatoes were cooked in olive oil alone, the contents keep a bit better without the garlic and what not. After a couple of months the olive oil is great for dressings as well.

Check the extended article for some piccies of food with the end product in!