Frugal Friday Recipe: Sun Dried Tomatoes at home

I love love love sun dried tomatoes. They make any pizza taste gourmet, any pasta sauce or dish taste like it is from a fine Italian restaurant and any sandwich seem much more delicious. But they are EXPENSIVE so you can imagine my joy when I discovered just how easy they are to make! This is my favorite thing to do in the summer when our garden produces many tomatoes but also works well if I have tomatoes that are starting to get a bit “ripe” that I want to quickly preserve. I store mine in the fridge in a small container and then “rehydrate them” by placing them in a canning jar with a bit of olive or canola oil about 1 day before baking with them (this way they take up less room) you can of course keep them in the oil at all times if you prefer though!

Ingredients: Tomatoes and an oven or dehydrator

How to: Slice your tomatoes to the desired thickness (the thicker they are the longer they will take). Preheat your oven to 170 degrees if you are using an oven. Spread your tomatoes over a cookie sheet (or on your dehydrator rack as pictured below). If you are cooking in your oven do so with the door slightly ajar or they will cook too quickly the key here is SLOW cooking. Cook for 8-12 hours depending on thickness and temperature of dehydrator or oven. You want them to be dried but not crispy. Store in your refrigerator for up to a year (in my experience!). When you are ready to use them you can rehydrate them in oil (as mentioned above) or you can grind them in a food processor to make your own tomato paste (recipe to come soon!)