Dried Tomatoes in Oil Recipe

Tomatoes are wonderfully delicious juicy fruits. Their rich luscious juice and delectable meat can create a craving in anyone. However, it's not always feasible to use this fruit or vegetable (call it whatever you like) as it is, in cooking. Sometimes, you may not want the juicy content of the tomato, yet require its aromatic salty taste. In such situations, it is best to go for tomatoes which are dried. Tomatoes that are dried out have the same taste and flavor as a fresh tomato, and moreover, it is quite easier to store them too. Most of us just hop to the next market and get our share of dried and packaged tomatoes. As a result, we might end up purchasing more than what we need. So if you are thinking of drying your own tomatoes and wondering how you can dry tomatoes and preserve them in oil, then read on.

How to Dry Tomato?

Tomato drying is quite a simple procedure, which doesn't require any ability except... Well, actually it doesn't need any ability at all! All you have to do is get some fresh tomatoes from the market and dry them. See, no rocket science at all! Tomatoes could be of any variety of your liking, though, people mostly choose roma or cheery tomatoes. Tomatoes can be dried either by traditional method or modern means. According to your convenience, you can take your pick.

Drying and Storing Tomatoes in Oil

Before we go further, let us see how can we sun bake the tomatoes. In this recipe, firstly, the tomatoes are cut into slices. Then, you can remove the skin of the tomato, or you can postpone this step until the tomatoes are dried. Dribble out the juice of the tomatoes and let them dry under the sun for days or at least one week. You would know your tomatoes are dried by observing its texture. After that, you can easily fill them in bottles full of olive oil, along with a tinge of ginger paste or vinegar. Thus, your tomatoes are good for months to come and can be used as and when you like.

Other unconventional method of removing water content from tomatoes is to dehydrate them by using the microwave or oven. Oven-dried tomatoes also contains same savory taste as the ones which are sun-baked. All you have to do is to preheat your oven tray to 150 degree Celsius for 5 hours. Cut the tomatoes into pieces, soaking out the juice and remember to add salt to your tomato slices. This salted tomato slices should be put in the tray, inside the oven for approximately 2 hours. Keep a check on it from time to time. The temperature of oven also depends on the type of oven you have. Once you get hold of tomatoes that are oven dried, you can dip them in olive oil for 2 hours. Take them out when they are completely drenched with olive oil, then add any herb of your liking, for example, paste of garlic, dried cinnamon or cloves. Make sure that the quantity of these herbs is 1/10 of the tomato slices. For putting these tomatoes in a bottle of oil, add natural food preservatives like vinegar or citric acid to it.

Whenever you wish to eat these tomatoes or use in cooking, you can easily rehydrate them by soaking them in a bowl of water just one hour before use. You may have bountiful servings of these dried out tomatoes to your heart's content. These can be used in many cuisines like the Mexican or Chinese and you can even go Italiano by baking your tomato pizza and tomato rich pasta. So, do you agree that this is hardly sweat? So, go ahead, dry some tomatoes and try this recipe.