Have you ever had sun-dried tomatoes at a restaurant and wondered if you can use them in your home cooking? Well, it is dead simple to make them at home. All it takes is an oven and a little patience! Sun dried tomatoes make a wonderful ingredient in your salad, pasta or pizza and elevate your dish from ordinary to gourmet!
Ingredients:
4-6 .............. large tomatoes
2 tbsp .............. salt (use sea salt if you have it)
1-2 tbsp .............. olive oil
Method:
- Slice tomatoes into quarters like shown in the picture above.
- Place them in a baking tray so they are spread out and don't touch each other.
- Sprinkle salt on them. You may also add herbs like oregano or rosemary if you like.
- Generously top them with olive oil.
- Pre-heat the oven to 100 ºC or 200 ºF. If you don't have that setting, use the lowest temperature you have in your oven.
- Place the tray with tomatoes in the oven and bake them for about 8 hours. The amount of time will vary from oven to oven but you will know that they are done when all moisture has been evaporated and tomatoes become chewy/crunchy.
- When the tomatoes have dried, take them out of oven and cool them.
- They are ready to use. You may cover them with olive oil and store them in a ziplock bag or an airtight container in your refrigerator. They stay good for 3-4 months.