Extra tomatoes? No Problem!

Tomato season in here in NC! One of my favorite times of year because it means that summer is in full swing.  One thing that is sometimes sad is that I don’t make it through all of the tomatoes I got within the week and then I go to the market and buy more and then I’m in major overload.  I guess you could freeze a tomato if you knew you were only going to use it for sauce later, but I think that dehydrating them is a much better idea (for small scale extras- I do buy boxes of tomatoes to can near the end of the summer too)

So here’s what I do:

Start with extra tomatoes (in this example they are sungolds which would be even sadder to have to throw away).

Sungold tomatoes

Cut tomatoes in half and then squeeze out their seeds and squishy guts. Once you do that they will look like little bowls like this:

Sliced and de-seeded tomatoes

Finally, line the dehydrator (or baking tray) with the tomatoes, cut side up.  In the dehydrator mine took about 6 or so hours.  You are going for a raisin to slightly drier texture.  If you don’t have a dehydrator you can put them into an oven set on a low temperature (250℉) for a few hours. I would suggest to check them every 30-60 minutes.

For storage, you’ll need a mason jar filled about 1/4 full of vegetable oil, 1/4 full of EVOO.  Toss in the dried tomatoes and save them in the refrigerator until the sad days of winter when all you have is onions and potatoes.

Dried tomatoes stored in oil

We keep adding to the same jar until it is full until we reach the sad time when tomatoes are no longer available fresh, then we start using them.  They are great in pasta with goat cheese for starters 🙂