Oven-Dried Tomatoes

I had some cherry tomatoes that had begun to dry in the refrigerator, so I decided to finish off the process. I remembered reading somewhere about oven-drying tomatoes (similar to sun-drying, but faster), but of course I couldn't remember where. So I googled it.

I looked at a bunch of recipes for oven-dried cherry tomatoes, and man is there a lot of variation. Olive oil, no olive oil, cut, not cut, herbs, no herbs, low temperature, high temperature, etc!!

What's a girl to do? Whatever she wants, that's what! My first batch I drizzled the tomatoes with olive oil before baking, then I didn't quite get them out of the oven in time before they burned. Drat. The second batch, I didn't use the olive oil, just salted the tomatoes and kept a more careful eye on them. Success! (except I forgot how many hours it took...I have more tomatoes to do, I'll update when I figure it out!)



Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes

approximately 2 pounds cherry tomatoes, washed
kosher salt
olive oil

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread cherry tomatoes in a single layer on top of the parchment. Drizzle with a couple tablespoons olive oil (if desired, I decided not to) and sprinkle with salt. Place pan in oven for 2 to 6 hours, until tomatoes are completely dry and shriveled, yet still chewy and not burnt! Remove from oven, cool completely.

Store in jar, covered with olive oil. You can add garlic and some fresh herbs if you'd like. These should keep for several weeks in the refrigerator, and would make a fantastic gift.


In fact, I'm going outside to pick the rest of my cherry tomatoes right now!