Whether pure as a snack, preserved in oil, or processed into pesto Rosso: sun-dried tomatoes are delicious. We will show you how you can make your own sun-dried tomatoes in your own oven.
Our neighbors to the south have it good: They simply use the warm Mediterranean sun to dry ripe tomatoes. Perhaps you, too, have already seen roofs of houses on which pallets full of tomato halves were slowly drying while on holiday in Italy?!
In our latitudes, we have to help the drying process a bit. If you want to dry tomatoes yourself, you don’t necessarily need a special dehydrator; so does the oven.
Make sun-dried tomatoes yourself: the ingredients
- 1 kilo good, ripe tomatoes (e.g. San Marzano)
- sea-salt
Drying tomatoes yourself: That’s how it works
- Cut the tomatoes in half.
- Then remove the tomato juice and seeds; a teaspoon is best.
- The tomato halves are now placed cut-side down on several layers of kitchen paper and dried well.
- Place the tomato halves cut-side up on a baking tray lined with baking paper and season with sea salt.
- Put the tomatoes in the oven preheated to 90°C (top and bottom heat). Place a cooking spoon in the oven door to allow moisture to escape and dehydrate the tomatoes for 5 to 6 hours. The tomatoes are sufficiently dry when they can be bent like a sticky rubber mass. Do the test with your fingers: If you press the sun-dried tomatoes with your fingers, no more moisture should escape.
- Let the tomatoes cool on the baking sheet. They will keep for a long time in a cool and dry place. Tip: Put a few grains of rice in the container in which you store the tomatoes. These absorb excess moisture.
Gift ideas with sun-dried tomatoes
Gifts from your own kitchen are always welcome. Put a handful of dried tomatoes in good olive oil and add a chili pepper for a piquant aroma – and you have a personal and decorative gift for a loved one.
Make Pesto Rosso yourself
You can also make pesto Rosso from your own dried tomatoes. For this you need:
- 100 g pine nuts
- 1 handful of parsley
- 1 handful of basil
- 100 grams of sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- oil at will
- Salt
- pepper
- Brown the pine nuts in the pan without oil. Roughly chop the tomatoes and place them in a tall container with the other ingredients. Process everything with the hand blender to a homogeneous mass, pouring in enough oil until the mass is creamy.
- Poured into a clean jar and covered with olive oil, the pesto will keep in the fridge for several weeks.
