October 20, 2010

Oven Dried Tomatoes

Among the tomatoes that we planted this year, one plant was La Roma II Red. These are the biggest Romas I've seen - most of them being at least 3 inches long. They were meaty and worked well in a sauce when combined with other varieties of tomatoes, but I knew I wanted to dry some in the oven.
I took about 36 tomatoes and after cutting off both ends, halved them and put them on a parchment-lined tray. Yay for parchment! It makes cleanup so much easier. I dusted the tomatoes lightly with pepper and Kosher salt and drizzled just a bit of olive oil over them.

These went into a 300° F oven for 3 hours. Some of the bigger ones still had quite a bit of juice in them, so I turned the tomatoes and continued roasting them for another hour.
This is what they looked like out of the oven. As soon as they had cooled some, I tried one, then another. And another. These are so flavorful! For lunch today I toasted a slice of french bread, added a little Dijon, some thinly sliced ham and topped it with three of the tomato halves. So good! I can't wait to use these tomatoes in recipes.
Our summer garden has been dug up after a freeze last weekend. It looks so barren and sad...
... compared to what it looked like it its heyday. We planted the garden the end of May, so it's a short season up here; only four months. We did get plenty of goodies, though - zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, sweet onions, green onions, radishes, garlic, bell peppers, jalapenos, yellow peppers, and rhubarb.


Here are some of the recipes I made with this year's harvest:
Zucchini Pancakes
Stuffed Zucchini
Zucchini & Tomato Saute
Sauteed Radishes
Fresh Spinach Frittata
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Rhubarb Pie
Tomato Soup
Piccalilli (made with green tomatoes)
Stuffed Tomatoes with Bleu Cheese

14 comments:

  1. Those tomatoes look wonderful Karen, both before AND after! I've never seen that variety of Romas, I must look for them next spring.

    It is hard to believe how full of color and life your garden was, just a few weeks ago. Arrgh, we're due for overnight freezing temps any time now. My raised veggie gardens will look very similar to how yours looks now.

    I'm loving that first photo of the oven dried tomatoes in the bowl. Perfection! xo ~m

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  2. It's amazing how much produce can come out of a relatively small garden plot. Your oven dried tomatoes look perfect, Karen. I think Roma's are the best for roasting.

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  3. My mom used to make these every year..she would then pack them in jars filled with olive oil for later use. They are so full of flavor and much safer than "sun dried" tomatoes. Great post!

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  4. I really enjoyed this post, Karen! Those oven dried tomatoes are so beautiful. I have a heaped basket of Juliette tomatoes (they're like a small Roma) and was looking for a way to use them or store them. This is such a delicious idea - thank you!
    I'm also dealing with the contrast of the garden seasons over here in the western part of the state. I believe that gardens are one of the best things about living up here.

    P.S. Your photos are just incredible!

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  5. Your tomatoes look so pretty and delicious Karen. You had such a nice garden again this year.

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  6. this sound good, waiting for your recipes on how you using this dried tomatoes.

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  7. I've only tried this once and I did not like the results, but yours look tasty! I'll have to try it again (next year as we've already had a freeze and tomato season is done) :(

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  8. Love those tomatoes and have to do this!

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  9. My garden is as sad looking as yours.

    Definitely bookmarking this one for next year. I can't believe I've never tried oven drying my tomatoes!

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  10. Those sound like some LARGE tomatoes! Definitely perfect for roasting. I love oven-dried tomatoes, especially on pizza!

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  11. The garden does look sad, doesn't it? I'm so envious of your lush garden, as I let mine to go to seed. The tomatoes look so good!

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  12. Love roasted roma's Karen too! You're going to enjoy these when preparing your winter meals.. they somehow will bring your summer garden back to life in your dishes.. if, they last that long LOL :) Great job!

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  13. Karen! I made these last night and put them out for guests - they were gone in a heartbeat. WONDERFUL way to fix tomatoes - this is a great find for me. Thanks!

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  14. These tomatoes look wonderful! And the sandwich sounds really good Karen. Can't wait to give these a try, even if I have to buy store-bought. :-/

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