Sun Dried Tomatoes


I'm always guaranteed plenty of willing helpers when there is a promise of some cooking in the kitchen. This is my beautiful niece Sarah, who recently helped me to clean the greenhouse and while we were there we picked lots of divine tomatoes.


After a long summer of waiting for my tomato plants to ripen, in the past fortnight a big glut if them have come along. I expect the lack of heat this August is to blame for their late development. It's really fantastic to head out to the greenhouse as the plants are all overflowing with tasty tomatoes. These home grown tomatoes seem to have a flavour different to any shop bought variety. They need very little added to them to create a really delicious dish and most of the time we eat them with just a sprinkle of sea salt and drizzle of a nice extra virgin olive oil.

The best way to maintain  the flavour of these Irish sun-kissed tomatoes, for when they are out of season, is to slow roast them turning them into sun-blushed tomatoes which can be refrigerated for weeks. I absolutely love sun-blushed tomatoes. They are one condiment which are so convenient to have in the fridge. I love them chopped in a sandwich or wrap, I often throw a few into my soda bread and they can be added to any pasta dish. And of course they are perfect in a salad.



Sun Dried/Sun Blushed Tomatoes

Ingredients
1kg fresh, ripe tomatoes
1 tsp sea salt
Few grinds black pepper
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C/ fan 120°C/ gas mark 1.
2. Slice the tomatoes and place tightly together on a baking tray.
3. Sprinkle over the salt, pepper and thyme leaves.
4. Drizzle over the olive oil.
5. Place in the pre-heated oven for approximately 2 hrs. Checking after 1 ½ hours to ensure that they are not charring too much.

6. Use straight away, or allow to cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge.



7 Comments:

Kristin said...

You and I are thinking along the same lines - I just did something similar with my cherry tomatoes last week! I used them in Donal Skehan's recipe for pasta with the roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and basil, it was perfect for this time of year.

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

Oh how delicious do these look! I love sundried tomatoes and I'll be trying this - probably this weekend!

Have a lovely day!

Nessa Robins said...

They are just so handy to have in the fridge! I've also used them in Donal's recipe but used feta in place of goats cheese {The only cheese I'm not so keen on!}
Thanks Mary! It's a lovely way to maintain that summery tomato flavour! :)

WiseMóna said...

We are doing the same this week but we also have a lot of basil and garlic so are making and freezing a huge batch of tomato basil sauce that should see us through the new year! #gardeningnerds... I know.

Nessa Robins said...

I'm sure those sauces will come in very handy durning the winter Mona! It's lovely to have some yummy dishes in the freezer!

Imen McDonnell said...

Hi Nessa,
This post looks just delicious! And your niece is a dote =) I've seen some amazing recipes for tomato tarts this summer/fall too. I could live on tomatoes alone I think! Imen x

Nessa Robins said...

She a gorgeous girl alright! We were so lucky to have such a good crop of tomatoes this year! I'll certainly miss my salads during the winter.