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Sun-dried Tomatoes (in the oven)

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“Sun-dried” tomatoes are simple to make in the oven.  I use smallish tomatoes from my garden, and then freeze them for use throughout the year.

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Sun-dried Tomatoes (in the oven)
Author: Ruth
Ingredients
  • Small tomatoes, halved
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
Instructions

  1. Set oven to bake at 200 degrees. Prepare baking sheets by spraying with a non-stick cooking spray.

  2. Cut tomatoes in half, and lay skin side down on baking sheets. Sprinkle with olive oil and lightly salt.

  3. Put in oven, for 2-4 hours (depends on size of tomato). Check periodically. When tomatoes have lost most of their water content, but before they brown, they are done. 

  4. Let cool, then store in airtight container in fridge (up to 4 days for optimal freshness), or freeze on the tray. Once frozen, store in freezer bags for up to a year. 

IMG_7314You can use any small variety of tomato, I’ve used yellow pear, small yellow and cherry…but this year, we had a wonderful abundance of this Chestnut Chocolate variety, and they were so sweet, I thought they would be perfect for drying and freezing.  IMG_7315

To “sun-dry” them, just preheat the oven for 200 degrees (bake setting), spray the baking sheets with non-stick spray (you can do two sheets at a time, just rotate halfway through). Half the tomatoes, placing them skin-side down.  Sprinkle with olive oil and a little salt. Put one or two sheets in the oven (you may want to rotate half way through) and bake for 2.5-4 hours, depending on the size of your tomato.  IMG_7343

I left this sheet in for 4.5 hours, since the tomatoes were a little larger, and you can see that some of them lost almost all of their water content.  The larger tomato, in the lower right corner, looks about perfect.  I probably should have taken the smaller ones out at about 3 hours. Once they’re done, let them cool and eat a few, so sweet and delicious!  You can preserve them in an airtight container in the fridge, or freeze them on the sheets then transfer to a freezer bag to keep for up to a year. I bet you could can these in olive oil, but I’ve never tried that! Let me know if you did, I’d love to hear how it turns out.