We got a little too excited this year when planting our tomatoes. We remembered how much we loved the luscious little yellow pear tomatoes, so we planted 5 of them. That may not sound like a lot, but when each plant keeps producing, and producing, suddenly 5 plants create way too many tomatoes to enjoy.
Big red tomatoes are easier, I think, to deal with in excess. Simply make sauce! I toyed around with the idea of making yellow tomato sauce (and I still may), but then I remembered this idea that I had seen somewhere. Ideally, I’d like to dehydrate the tomatoes in a food dryer, or a homemade solar dryer, to remove all the moisture. I have neither of those options at the moment, so a long slow roast in the oven is the way I went. This is an excellent way to do something different with all those little cherry, grape or pear tomatoes that keep piling up! Here is what I did:
1. Slice the little tomatoes in half and lay them on a baking sheet, cut side up. You can do this with any little tomatoes, of any color. Drizzle with the tiniest bit of olive oil (I find my handy mister perfect for a task like this to get a nice, light even coating). Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt. I used pepper this time, but next time I won’t–the pepper flavor was a little too much in the end.
2. Place tomatoes in an oven that is preheated to 250 degrees. Then walk away and find a great book to read. Do not clean the house. That’s not fun. Do something FUN and relaxing, but don’t leave the house for 3 hours. That’s how long it will take for the tomatoes to be mostly leathery, with just a bit of moisture left in their centers.
3. Eat a whole bunch of them. Mmmm! Now stuff the rest in a jar and cover with olive oil. If you are little horrified, like I was at first, about dumping a bunch of olive oil into a jar–don’t worry. The oil can still be used for other recipes once your tomatoes have been eaten up. You can keep these in the fridge for a few weeks. Some sources say several months. I really doubt they would last that long without being devoured! Eat them plain from the jar, or put on a salad, or a pizza. Use them like you would sundried tomatoes. If you have a great recipe using sundried tomatoes, or a cool use for these little roasted nuggets of tomato goodness, please post a link to it in our comments!
