There are only a few beefsteak tomatoes left that are to be harvested from the container garden and they are all starting to get red. TBH, I didn´t know what to do with them and there was no point in crushing them to make Tomato Purre´ as they are reasonably available in packs from Italy. I tried to use some for my Garlic Roasted recipe but they are not as tasteful as the cherry tomatoes .
Well, I decided that the harvested ones be dried in the dehydrator, spiced with roasted garlic and parsley and basil. Any tomato variety can be dried. In my opinion, it depends on the spice you will add to make a tasteful outcome. Next time, I will add sheep or goat cheese.
I have seen some of the process used to dry tomatoes, one can have it sun-dried, in the oven, or thru dehydrator. Since we didn´t have much sun and it was cooler during the last 4 days, I decided to do it in the Dehydrator. It was warm inside the apartment, so there was no way that I did it in the oven.
Dried Tomatoes Spiced With Garlic, Parsley and Basil
Ingredients
1 kg ripe tomatoes, any variety will do
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
a handful of parsley leaves snipped
salt
black pepper, coarsely ground
a few leaves of fresh basil
1 tsp. stevia (Optional) if you want to make it a bit sweeter
Olive oil
Preparations :
1... Wash the tomatoes, remove the stalk, pat with a kitchen towel dry.
2...Cut into halves and arrange on a flat container. Add salt
3... Arrange in the Dehydrator loosely the cut part facing up. Set the Dehydrator at 60°C for 6 hours. Then, Add a bit of the coarsely ground black pepper.
4... Cover, and run again for another 4 hours or until the tomatoes looses its color and are semi-dry which means a bit softer on its edges. Then take out from the dehydrator, add the pieces in a bowl and set aside.
In the meantime, heat a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, fry the crushed garlic until golden brown in color . Then add the parsley leaves , fry til brown in color. Add this to the bowl of dried tomatoes. Sprinkle about a teaspoon Stevia powder . If you do not want it sweeter, then omit the Stevia.
5... Arrange the tomatoes in an airtight glass and add the garlic, parsley and fresh Basil leaves. Add Olive oil about half of the tomato quantity. Close the lid of the glass and shake it so that all tomato pieces are coated with the oil.
The tomatoes can be added as toppings for bread , bruschetta or any sliced white bread. This could also be used if sliced into small pieces for any pasta as toppings.
I hope you`ll try this out if you have the chance to have many tomatoes!
All images are owned by @mers.
