Tomato Candy! - Oven-Dried Goodness

10 years ago, if you would have told me I would be writing a blog post about how much I love tomatoes, I would have called you crazy.  As a child, I hated tomatoes.  I thought they were gross, slimy and overall just disgusting.  When I first met my husband we would go on dates to nice restaurants and when the salads came, both of us would take off the tomatoes and set them aside.  Any sandwiches we ordered that came with tomatoes got the same treatment.  I used to joke with him that maybe we should both find someone who liked tomatoes, so we didn't have to go through life wasting them.  Thank goodness he didn't take me up on that!  Now, it is just the opposite and neither one of us is likely to share our tomatoes.  Go figure!

Cut the tomatoes lengthwise and line them up
on the baking sheet.

Over time your palate changes and the things you used to like and enjoy become less interesting and other things you never could stand to eat suddenly become some of your favorite foods. I have a very long list of those foods actually - - eggs, mayonnaise, blue cheese, olives, mushrooms and of course, tomatoes, are just a few of the foods I used to abhor and now I absolutely love.  Looking at that list, I actually don't know what I used to eat!  Jeesh.

As I've worked my way through cook books and eaten amazing meals at various restaurants I've had the opportunity to try new foods.  I think the tomato tide started to turn when I tasted my first heirloom variety.  It was so sweet, and didn't have all the seedy pulp and mealy texture I had previously known tomatoes to have.  Drizzled with just a little extra virgin olive oil and nestled in amongst fresh mozzarella cheese and basil, with just the perfect amount of cracked black pepper and salt.  It was delicious!  And from there, the transformation began.

I used several varieties of
tomatoes, but you could use
all one kind.

One of the things I learned about tomatoes is that you should never store them in the refrigerator.  That is what gives them that mealy and gritty texture.  It basically sucks the sweet flavor right out of them.  Instead, they should be stored in a cool, dry place (I keep mine in a bowl on the counter).  In the summer, at the peak of harvest time, I usually have a several bowls of them.  They find their way into just about every recipe from scrambled eggs to sauces and, my absolute favorite way to enjoy them, Caprese Salads.

After they are dried in the oven
this is what the tomatoes look like.

This year was such a great year for my garden that I needed to find a new way to prepare and utilize them so they didn't go to waste.  The Roma's I grew weren't as large as previous years so they didn't lend themselves to making red sauce.  And having done that in years past I really didn't want to spend the time to blanch and skin the tomatoes.  Its just such a process.  So, as I thought about all the different variations of tomato preparations, having them on hand all through the winter in the form of oven-dried morsels of goodness seemed like the perfect way to go.  And man, it couldn't be any easier than this recipe.

Close up shot of the oven dried
nuggets of goodness!

All you need to do is wash the tomatoes and then halve them lengthwise - - cutting through where the stem would be.  Then you simply arrange them on a baking sheet with the skin side facing down.  Then be sure they aren't touching one another, and drizzle them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  I used Silpat baking sheets, but if you don't have them, parchment paper would work well.  I had enough tomatoes to fill two full sheets!

Put the baking sheets into a 225 degree oven for 6-8 hours, depending on what type of tomato you are using and their size.  Since I used a variety I just pulled the ones off the pan as they got finished.  Just check back every 30 - 45 minutes or so to see how they are doing toward the end.  I also took the opportunity to roast some garlic along with the tomatoes by placing unpeeled cloves directly on the pans next to the tomatoes.  You can either put it into the jars with the tomatoes as I did here, or use it to smear on some crusty bread.  Either way, don't miss out on the opportunity since you'll have the oven on low and slow anyway.

Add the roasted garlic and fresh
Thyme right to the jar before
adding the oil.

The transformation that takes place here is something out of a fairy tale.  The peak of the season already produces amazingly sweet and succulent tomatoes, but by drying them you are concentrating the flavors.  My husband happened by while the sheets were cooling on the counter and gave one a try and immediately exclaimed, "Oh my God, they taste like candy!"  Yup, tomato candy.  They are sweet and just a little bit chewy, and taste just like summer.

I put all the cherry tomatoes together in this
smaller jar with the herbs and garlic.

After the tomatoes are dried and cooled, you can fill your jars.  I also put in some fresh Thyme along with the peeled garlic I had roasted.  Then the only thing left to do is fill the jar with olive oil to cover the tomatoes.  Since these aren't sterilized in a water bath, you can't leave them out on the counter.  I don't mess around with bacteria and botulism.  Since I have the fridge space available I don't mind storing them there to be safe.  

The oil will firm up a bit in the fridge and turn opaque, but you just need to set it out on the counter for a few minutes for it to soften up.  It doesn't effect the flavor at all.  The oil, which is now flavored with the delicious flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, is also perfect for making salad dressings or even just drizzling over fish or steak. You could dice up the tomatoes and use the oil with pasta and maybe some fresh mozzarella as a no cook sauce as well.  The heat of the pasta would warm through the tomatoes and be delicious.

Update: After I finished making this initial recipe with the jars of olive oil that you see above, I also made two other batches of these oven-dried tomatoes.  (I told you my garden was doing well this year!)  This time though, instead of taking up fridge space, I just placed them on sheet trays in my freezer (after they were dried) until they were frozen - - about an hour - - and then placed them into a zip lock bag.  Doing this ensured they didn't freeze to one another in a giant blob.

Now I have a huge supply of delicious tomato goodness available for me all winter long.  I can reach into the freezer and pull out as many as I need to use in sauces, soups, meatloaf or with pasta.  The winters around here are long and cold.  So I can't wait for a blustery winter day when I can reach into the freezer and remind myself just what the bounty of summer tastes like!