Tomatoes Part II

Last week we took some beautifully fresh tomatoes and made a lovely simple soup. This week we wanted to find a way to make our tomatoes last. So, we thought about how we typically eat tomatoes and decided to take a chance making sun-dried tomatoes...well, technically oven-dried tomatoes. Here's what we did.

6 roma plum tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1. pre-heat oven to 200F (or as low as your oven will go)

2. line a baking sheet with parchment paper

3. clean and slice your tomatoes, lengthwise. The thickness of your tomatoes will determine how many slices your make. Our tomatoes were quite large, so we were able to get 4 slices.

4. evenly space your tomato slices, cut side up, on the baking sheet

5. drizzle with olive oil

6. sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano (oregano is optional, it's up to you)

7. place baking sheet into oven for 8-12 hours - we popped ours in the oven at 8am, they roasted all day long

8. the tomatoes need to be shrivelled, but not burnt...still pliable

9. turn the oven off and allow the tomatoes to rest in the, turned off, oven until they are completely cooled (we left ours in the oven overnight)

10. once the tomatoes are dried, remove them from the baking sheet and place them in a glass jar or plastic bag

11. you can store with or without oil, keep refrigerated for up to 6 months

Not only do we have sweet and delicious oven-dried tomatoes, but our house smells divine. For breakfast this morning my youngest daughter put in a request for sun-dried tomatoes. She gave them a try, declared they are "great."

So, how do we use our sun-dried tomatoes? We add them to pesto, just blitz them in with the basil. We slice them and add them to salads. We process them and turn them into a tapenade to spread on bread. The options are endless. While they take a lot of time to make - they don't take a lot of effort. In fact, I think I'm going to pop another batch in the oven tomorrow.