Oven Dried Tomatoes

Pretty much the only thing my garden was good at producing this year was tomatoes. I didn't want to waste so much and at the same time try something easy. Just having a baby makes me a whole lot less ambitious. I figured this was my answer. And who doesn't love sun dried tomatoes? I tried two different ways, leaving the seeds in with a higher oven temperature and squeezing the seeds out with a lower oven temperature. They actually took about the same amount of time and it the only difference seems to be the seed-in high temp version came out a little darker in color. I was hoping they would dry out faster with the higher temperature but they didn't really. 

Oven Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients 

Couple pounds of Cherry tomatoes 

Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 

Halve the tomatoes and lay cut side up in one layer on a cookie sheet with edges aka jelly roll pan.

Sprinkle with salt. 

Bake for about 8 hrs. Checking every few hours removing any tomatoes from the pan that have dried and taken on a leathery feel. 

When all have dried place in freezer ziplock bag and freeze. 

 

Or if you don't want seeds, 

Squeeze out seeds from cut tomatoes. Lay cut side up

Bake at 150 from 6-8 hrs. Checking every couple hours. 

Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Herbs

This year I have had tons of tomatoes from my 2 ginormous plants. They are monsters. It's my first time growing them here and they have done great but since the middle of June they have started to get some dried leaves and branches. 100 degree weather will do that I guess. I think they are either about done giving tomatoes or just slowing down for a bit. I guess we'll see. But anyway, all these tomatoes I were going to go to waste so I decided to dry them in the oven. Worked out pretty well and I think I plan on doing it again. It's super simple, just takes a bit of time drying in the oven.

Now that I had all these dried tomatoes I needed to try them out to see if it was worth it, and they were delicious (I'll have to post about those too). So here is this weeknight meal that was the product of all these tomatoes. It could easily be served when company is over too. Lots of flavor and pretty easy.  I made mine all in one pot and could be even simpler without adding any protein. So good. 

Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Herbs

Serves 4

Ingredients 

1 lb pasta (penne, spirals, bow ties, etc) cooked according to package directions and drained

2 Tbs olive oil

1 lg chicken breast 

3 Tbs unsalted butter

3 Tbs flour

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 small clove garlic minced

1/2 tsp dried basil*

1/4 tsp dried oregano* 

1 tsp dried parsley* 

2 cups (one can) chicken broth

1/4 cup grated Parmesan 

salt and pepper

Pinch red pepper flakes

3/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes 

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Directions

*Fresh herbs would be ideal, chopped very fine and added at the end instead of dried herbs added at the beginning, but all my herbs died. Some things get forgotten after you have a baby... oh well.

In the same pot that you cooked the pasta, heat olive oil over medium heat. 

Add chicken with some salt and pepper and cook. To make things super simple I often cut the chicken in the pan while it's  cooking with my spatula . Shh don't tell anyone. 

Remove from pan, add butter and flour.

Whisk well to make a roux. 

Add cream, garlic, red pepper flakes, and herbs and allow it to get fragrant. 

Add chicken broth and Parmesan and turn heat up to medium high heat for a few minutes to reduce slightly. Whisking occasionally to keep from sticking to the bottom.

Salt to taste. 

Turn off heat and add noodles, chicken, tomatoes, and pine nuts. 

Serve immediately.