Bounty

Too many tomatoes. What to do, what to do? With a bumper crop of Roma and Grape tomatoes this year, when it came down to the end of the season I did not feel like bottling them. I suddenly had a burst of inspiration and made my own sun-dried tomatoes!

 I began with clean fresh tomatoes and basil grown on my back porch. I cut the tomatoes in half, sprinkled them with sea salt and chopped basil.

 

I places the tomatoes on my dehydrator trays and dried them for 8 hours at 140 degrees.

 

I wish I could blog the smell of these beauties as they dried...heavenly!

Once they were done I put them in freezer bags and tucked them in my pantry. You can freeze them for up to nine months but I didn't have THAT many!

I have already used them in a yummy chicken and bow tie pasta dish. The flavor was so concentrated and they were just the right chewiness. I guess that's a word because spell check liked it!

You can dry them in your oven or in the sun too! I remember one year my sister Sharon made grapes on her sunny roof in Mesa. She covered them with cheese cloth to keep the birds and bugs away and they turned out beautifully.

It was fun! I am done.