How to Make Oven-Dried Tomatoes
Hello everyone!
Since this years mantra for our family is "we are not on a diet we are changing our lifestyle" (haha cant believe it too!) I've been poking around, reading and running some kitchen experiments of food that can be quite tasty and quite healthy. I've realized I can't eat just raw leaves all the time so I tried to make things out of my comfort zone and trying to stay away those scrumptious crispy golden fried stuff.
But there is one thing I have enjoyed always. Sun dried tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and bread. But as sun dried tomatoes aren't that heavily available here in the Philippines and where you can get them here is a buck load expensive so I decided maybe I can make them on my own!
I'm used to things taking quite long but making sun dried tomatoes takes days! So I remembered back then when I was working a colleague of mine Jhona (Hey Jhona if you're reading this congrats with the precious little Summer!) used to oven dry tomatoes and its really decent.
The trick of the trade here is just to use the best ingredients as possible. From the olive oil, to the salt and tomatoes! everything must be fresh, vibrant and high quality. And I found some local stuff that just come up to the standard.
You'll be needing:
15-20 pieces of tomatoes, i used local tomatoes and they're just ripe and vibrant red in color.
slice one tomato into 4 pieces and de-seed them.
6 cloves of garlic
Basil Stalks or Basil Leaves about 15 grams. I just used stalks cause i opted to use the leaves for pesto. I used my own dried fresh basil leaves cause the taste is more intense when you use dried fresh basil not the dried basil you'd get from a bottle.
Sea Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preheat your oven to 375 deg F.
In a baking pan add all ingredients, season with the sea salt and freshly ground pepper and a generous dash of Olive Oil. Just enough to coat all the tomatoes.
Then turn down the heat to 350 deg F. Roast/ bake the tomatoes for 30 min- to an hour til they shrivel up.
Take note that every 10 minutes you have to turn the tomatoes over like if you were to sauté something. so they don't burn and all sides cook evenly so you can get that chewiness you get with sun dried tomatoes.
once all wrinkly and appetising take them out and let them cool.
Now this is optional but if you are storing them best to just make infused olive oil and they go great with everything! Pasta or bread even side dishes!
in a glass container add all the tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic and then pour extra virgin olive oil just till all the tomatoes are covered. store in the refrigerator.
The oil is great for sautéing as well. You can add these to a basil pesto or make pizza bread. Add on top of a roasted chicken or cous cous! The possibilities are endless! I love when the concoction is about 2 days stored in the refrigerator and all the ingredients have blended with each other. the tomatoes are so juicy and sweet! I'm addicted!
And thats my oven dried tomatoes! hope you enjoyed this post! have a great Friday!
Since this years mantra for our family is "we are not on a diet we are changing our lifestyle" (haha cant believe it too!) I've been poking around, reading and running some kitchen experiments of food that can be quite tasty and quite healthy. I've realized I can't eat just raw leaves all the time so I tried to make things out of my comfort zone and trying to stay away those scrumptious crispy golden fried stuff.
But there is one thing I have enjoyed always. Sun dried tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and bread. But as sun dried tomatoes aren't that heavily available here in the Philippines and where you can get them here is a buck load expensive so I decided maybe I can make them on my own!
I'm used to things taking quite long but making sun dried tomatoes takes days! So I remembered back then when I was working a colleague of mine Jhona (Hey Jhona if you're reading this congrats with the precious little Summer!) used to oven dry tomatoes and its really decent.
The trick of the trade here is just to use the best ingredients as possible. From the olive oil, to the salt and tomatoes! everything must be fresh, vibrant and high quality. And I found some local stuff that just come up to the standard.
15-20 pieces of tomatoes, i used local tomatoes and they're just ripe and vibrant red in color.
slice one tomato into 4 pieces and de-seed them.
6 cloves of garlic
Basil Stalks or Basil Leaves about 15 grams. I just used stalks cause i opted to use the leaves for pesto. I used my own dried fresh basil leaves cause the taste is more intense when you use dried fresh basil not the dried basil you'd get from a bottle.
Sea Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preheat your oven to 375 deg F.
In a baking pan add all ingredients, season with the sea salt and freshly ground pepper and a generous dash of Olive Oil. Just enough to coat all the tomatoes.
Take note that every 10 minutes you have to turn the tomatoes over like if you were to sauté something. so they don't burn and all sides cook evenly so you can get that chewiness you get with sun dried tomatoes.
once all wrinkly and appetising take them out and let them cool.
Now this is optional but if you are storing them best to just make infused olive oil and they go great with everything! Pasta or bread even side dishes!
in a glass container add all the tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic and then pour extra virgin olive oil just till all the tomatoes are covered. store in the refrigerator.
The oil is great for sautéing as well. You can add these to a basil pesto or make pizza bread. Add on top of a roasted chicken or cous cous! The possibilities are endless! I love when the concoction is about 2 days stored in the refrigerator and all the ingredients have blended with each other. the tomatoes are so juicy and sweet! I'm addicted!
And thats my oven dried tomatoes! hope you enjoyed this post! have a great Friday!
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