Dehydrated Tomatoes at Home
Dried tomatoes in their jar :) These were the plum/paste type cut into lengthwise quarters/spears
Dehydrated tomatoes are amazing! Sold as sun-dried tomatoes in the store, you can make them at home. I actually don’t recommend putting them out in the sun, because that’s where flies and other bugs will find them. The tomatoes have already gotten a huge dose of vitamin D from the sun already and can be dried without laying them out. To dry tomatoes, I have found it best to use a dehydrator. It and be done in a low oven, but it’s not super foolproof and it’s easy to burn them or under dry them. We don’t all need to own dehydrators — maybe a friend of yours has one you can borrow for a while in exchange for some dried tomatoes!
Types of tomatoes to dry:
I like drying either plum/paste tomatoes OR cherry/grape types. This is because I find their shapes and sizes to be pretty uniform and I cut them in a way where the skin side is down on the dehydrator tray so they don’t stick. I cut plum/paste tomatoes in lengthwise quarters (like little spears) and put them skin-side down. For the cherry or grape types, I found a video “kitchen hack” that actually works for halving tons and tons of tomatoes on the double: put a dinner plan face down on the counter and place the tomatoes in the little rimmed area in the center. Place a matching plate right-side up on top, sandwiching the tomatoes. Use a bread knife to slice through like you’re cutting a cake in half. Put all these little guys skin-side down in your dehydrator trays.
Mountain Magic grape tomatoes work great for drying due to their regular size and high yields. Find them in the Bellair PYO fields!
The drying process:
Your dehydrator may come with a temperature recommendation for tomatoes, around 140 F. Keep in mind you can turn it up or down if you want to. The drying process can take a really variable time: 24 to 48 hours. You can stop the drying process when you want to, but the moisture content will affect how you’re able to store the tomatoes (see below). Especially if you had trouble getting even-sized tomatoes, you may want to remove them a few at a time (check on them every 4-8 hours) as they completely dry out and leave the wet ones in there.
Freshly halved Mountain Magics, using the dinner plate sandwich method!
Storing your dried tomatoes:
I like to dry tomatoes in two ways and store them differently: I dry some out COMPLETELY so they are crispy and hard almost, no trace of moisture. I store these, once cooled, in an airtight jar in my pantry. I also like to dry some just most of the way so the centers are still a tiny bit juicy. I put these in a jar too but put the jar in the freezer. I use them pretty similarly overall, but like the variable storage options. If you’ve dried yours out completely, you should be able to pour olive oil over them and store them that way, but I have had them go bad, wasting a lot of great oil and tomatoes at the same time. I prefer to leave them as-is and then I can see if any mold begins to form and remove the problem tomato or dry them out more.
Using your dried tomatoes:
To re-hydrate the super-dry ones, I will pour boiling water or hot oil over them and cover them with a dish while I work on other things. Then you can take them out and chop them down to the size you like. I top pizzas, and use in pasta dishes and wintery salads. You can also just throw them in a simmering sauce and they will usually rehydrate on their own in that cooking process. Occasionally, I’ll make a decadent sundried tomato pesto by rehydrating then blending with all the normal pesto ingredients minus basil.