Roma Tomatoes Dehydrated With an Oil and Spice Coating

Drying tomatoes can be done in the oven or dehydrator. I used my oven for this batch and it is an easy way to process the excesses of tomatoes that I get from my garden.

It is simple to do. I picked the tomatoes and let them finish ripening in the house. I have some cookie cooling racks that I re-appropriated use for. A baking sheet with tin foil to catch my olive oil that drips off my drying tomatoes underneath the cooling racks and I am prepared to start.

The main sequence is wash, cut off end, cut in half, place in bowl, coat with oil, place on cooling rack, salt, season and then bake for 5 - 8 hours in a slow oven. 250 degrees.

Many times in the past, I have blanched, peeled and frozen tomatoes. This is so much easier. Once they are out of the oven, there are many new uses for them. For example: if you eat a B.L.T., you can use an oven dried tomato instead of a fresh slice.

You will notice the difference, since the oven dried slice will have a flavor punch. The flavor of these oven dried slices is very intense. The juices dehydrate and what is left is the acidic quality of the tomato. The sea salt and Seasoned Salt that was used, enhances the tomato flavor.

Another suggestion was to place the frozen pieces on a frozen pizza and to bake them on the top.

Roma tomatoes have been good oven dried. I tried it with cherry tomatoes this time.

I found this method of drying tomatoes to be quite simple and the oohs and ahhs from the family made it all worth it.