Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes
Note: This recipe has been updated to correct errors. I’ve also added omissions from the original post.
We eat seasonally in the IK, though ours is not the precious pastime of snooty Northern Californians. Yes, we live an area of agricultural bounty, making seasonal eating easy and pleasurable. Yet this same location confers a certain responsibility: we have no excuse for consuming fruits or vegetables from across the globe.
Ecological concerns are inescapable here. As I write, California is in the grip of a frightening drought. As for global warming, I need only stand in my yard to view its impact. This is our lemon tree.
In the five years we’ve lived here, it’s fruited prodigiously—in January. Now, in this final week of July, lemons are appearing erratically, unexpectedly, evoking a deep unease.
Beyond planetary concerns lies a desire to mark time. I grew up in the Midwest, where the year was sharply demarcated by weather. But three decades in California have turned me into a lightweight: I know every exquisite fall is followed by a winter filled with blizzards and black ice. And those I do not miss. Instead: tomatoes in July, turnips in January.
Lots of tomatoes in July.
During the summer months I put up a winter’s worth of tomatoes. Yes, this is a needless, potentially insane pursuit (not unlike driving on black ice). Taste trumps these arguments: to preserve your own tomatoes is to know the shortcomings of even the finest commercial products.
Last summer I packed 21 half-pint jars of oven-dried cherry tomatoes in oil. John made fun, but once fresh tomato season ended, he was happy to eat them. A year later, a lone jar remains. Time to start the next batch.
Oven Dried Cherry Tomatoes Packed in Olive Oil
Yield: Two ½ pint jars
8 ounces/225 grams/1 pint basket organic or pesticide-free cherry tomatoes
olive oil
sea salt
Preheat your oven to 200 F/190C
Line a lipped baking sheet with foil. The foil is optional, but makes cleanup easier.
Wash tomatoes. Using a serrated knife, slice each in half. Place on baking sheet with cut sides facing upward.
Placing your finger over the opening of olive oil bottle, drizzle oil over the tomatoes. You want them moist but not soaked.
Place baking sheet in the oven and allow tomatoes to slowly dry out. This will take roughly two hours. Tomatoes should become chewy, but not completely crisped. Some tomatoes may be ready before others; remove these to a plate.
When all the tomatoes are finished, allow them to cool completely. Leave the oven on: you’ll use it to help sterilize the jars.
Sterilize two 8 ounce/227 g jars by washing them in very hot, soapy water. I use tongs to grasp the jars and hold them under the hot tap, then place them in the oven to dry. You could also sterilize the jars using the dishwasher hot cycle.
While the jars dry, wash and dry jar lids and bands. Use hot soapy water and dry with a clean, non-linting dishtowel.
Once the jars are dry, remove one from the oven using tongs. Place jar on heatproof surface. I use a wooden cutting board. Sprinkle sea salt in the bottom of the jar. Lightly layer tomatoes until jar is quarter full. Do not pack tightly. Add quarter teaspoon salt.
Repeat the layering and salting until the jar has half-inch headspace at top. You will see a glass line around the jar. This is the half-inch mark. Stop here. Add a final quarter-teaspoon salt.
Slowly pour in the olive oil to cover. Use a funnel if you wish.
Repeat with second jar. If you have any leftover tomatoes that don’t completely fill a third jar, put that jar in the fridge and use it right away.
Sterilize a knife or spoon handle under hot water, dry it, and use it to pop any bubbles in the jars.
Spray a clean cloth or paper towel with white vinegar and wipe the jar rims.
Screw the lids on fingertip tight–that is, tight enough, but not so tight that six months from now you’ll wish John Cena lived with you.
Jars keep, refrigerated, up to a year.
These are wonderful anywhere you’d use fresh tomatoes: in sandwiches, atop a piece of bread with a smear of ricotta, floated in soup, blistered on pizza. We use them most in salads. The olive oil becomes wonderfully permeated with tomato, making a perfect dressing. Pull a jar from the fridge while making dinner, letting olive oil soften to room temperature. Then it’s just a matter of opening the jar and spooning the contents over salad greens.
I like these tomatoes atop my morning bagel with cream cheese, too.
