Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Between the tomatoes in my CSA bag and those in my own garden, I’ve been inundated with tomatoes! Not wanting to allow a single one of my 3 dozen Romas to go to waste, I figured the best way to preserve them would be to make my own sun-dried (or oven-dried) tomatoes, which I use in salads, pasta, pizzas, to name a few dishes. Once dried, you can either store in a plastic zipper-lock bag or in a jar of olive oil. This recipe, while super simple, does take time and requires that you (at least passively) pay attention.

Source: Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Patricia Wells’ Trattoria

Ingredients
5 pounds Roma tomatoes
Fine sea salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Trim and discard the stem ends of the tomatoes. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, side by side and crosswise on cake racks set on the oven racks. Do not allow the tomatoes to touch one another. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Place in the oven and bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and feel dry, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Check the tomatoes from time to time: They should remain rather flexible, not at all brittle. Once dried, remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow them to thoroughly cool on cake racks. (Smaller tomatoes will dry more quickly than larger ones. Remove each tomato from the oven as it is dried.) Transfer the tomatoes to zipper-lock bags. The tomatoes will last indefinitely.