A Burst Of Flavor

"Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so." Genesis 1:29-30

Sitting here watching football and decided to share a fun recipe. One of my daughter-in-loves was looking for a way to use up some cherry tomatoes that she had and I remembered that I had recently experimented with this "new" old technique for putting up tomatoes.

I had a bunch of tomatoes from my garden this year. Not enough to can or freeze though. Then I remembered.....sun dried tomatoes. Yum! For some reason I had long ago determined that they were extremely hard because, after all, they are wildly expensive in the grocery store. Little did I know that they couldn't be easier to make!

Basically all you need are tomatoes, salt, a cookie sheet, and an oven. Pretty simple!

Roma tomatoes work the best but any kind of tomato will work. You get about 2 lbs of finished product from 5 lbs of tomatoes. I didn't start with any particular weight. I just used what I had. You don't have to go out and buy a bushel of tomatoes. You can do it with a pound or two if you just want to practice.

First....cut all the tomatoes in half. Then either squeeze out the seeds or push them out with your finger. Don't worry about getting every single seed out. They won't effect the finished product. (Some people even leave the seeds in so if you want to skip that step...go for it!)

Cover a cookie sheet in aluminum foil or parchment paper. (I love the new paper from Reynolds that is parchment paper on one side and aluminum foil on the other!) Reynolds Consumer Pan Lining Paper, 30 SF

Lay all the tomato halves on the prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt.  (I use Kosher salt or Sherpa Pink Gourmet Himalayan Salt)

Place the cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven. You don't need to preheat it because it's going to sit in there for a long time...hours...anyway. There is no set time because all ovens are different and the moisture content of the tomatoes is so varied. For mine it took 6 hours. I set the timer for 2 hours and then started checking every hour. You want the tomatoes to be leathery. Not dried and crispy (been there, done that)

After they are done, let them cool before either storing them in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator or in a glass jar. (Because I don't like plastic, I tend to store everything I can in glass). You can also freeze them.

I love them in a quick pasta dinner such as Angel Hair Pasta with Feta/Sun Dried Tomatoes paired with a salad. I also love them in Focaccia Bread which is a quick and easy side to spaghetti. The uses of sun dried tomatoes is endless. Pizza, scrambled eggs, chicken salad. You name it.

Do you have a favorite recipe to share using them? I would love to hear about it! Please let me know in the comments section!

Blessings,


©2014MichelleWelch, team member of Breath Of Life Women's Ministries
photography by Michelle Welch, all rights reserved
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