Sun-dried tomatoes in a fragrant dressing using the Masteritsa dryer - will be stored at home all winter

I hasten to share a mega-recipe for sun-dried tomatoes in a vegetable dehydrator. My mother-in-law makes these every year. The taste cannot be described in words. You can prepare canapes for a holiday, transform any salad, and eat it with pasta. It's an Italian dish after all. The main thing is that sun-dried tomatoes are prepared quickly and no more complicated than classic canning.

What should I use to dry (dry) tomatoes?

Tomatoes, like any fruits and vegetables, can be dried anywhere - in a dehydrator, in an oven, or outside under gauze. The difference is in convenience for the housewife. The oven can easily dry out delicate foods. They may burn. You need to constantly monitor the drying process, turn the stove on and off. At the same time, a lot of electricity is consumed (I do not recommend using a gas oven for these purposes at all).

Having considered all the pros and cons, I decided to go to the hardware store to buy a vegetable dryer. My mother-in-law has been praising her Craftswoman EFD-0903VM for a long time. She not only cooks sun-dried tomatoes in it, but also dries herbs, various berries, mushrooms and even dries fish and meat. Without thinking twice, I took the same one. I liked its spaciousness, stylish appearance, large number of trays - as many as 9. Dryers were sold at the same price for half the price. The choice was obvious.

Sun-dried tomatoes in the dryer Craftswoman EFD-0903VM

Before cooking sun-dried tomatoes in a dehydrator, I advise you to carefully study the instructions. Devices are different, with their own nuances. The Craftswoman EFD-0903VM has a lid with adjustable ventilation holes, a temperature regulator and a thermometer-sensor. This is very important for drying - the ability to evenly distribute air flow between trays to prevent mold. On the thermometer sensor you can see the real temperature inside the dryer, and if something happens, “turn up the heat.”

The recommended time for drying tomatoes in a vegetable dryer is 20-24 hours at a temperature of 75 degrees. The tomatoes should remain soft but not wet.

Please note that drying times and temperatures vary for different products.

Step by step recipe

I heard that in Italy sun-dried tomatoes are made from round cherry tomatoes. But our native meaty cream grows in my garden. They can be used too. What I like is that stretched cream is very easy to cut. Recipe for sun-dried tomatoes with photo:

First of all, I washed the tomatoes and tore off the green stems. Dried it on a towel.
I cut it - cut the small cream in half, and the larger ones into 4 slices.
I immediately placed the chopped tomatoes in the dryer tray so that they would not wrinkle or leak.
Place the tray on a paper towel, drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil, season with 1 tbsp. a spoonful of salt and a pinch of ground black pepper.
So I filled pallet after pallet. The dryer held about 7-8 kg of tomatoes (a bucket).
I installed all the trays in place, turned the temperature to maximum and pressed “start”.
In the evening I swapped the pallets, and again in the morning. By lunchtime the next day, exactly 23 hours later, the tomatoes were well dried.
I planned to prepare sun-dried tomatoes for the winter, so I sterilized half-liter jars for them and set 500 ml of olive oil to heat in a saucepan. You want the oil to be hot, but not boiling.
I filled the jars with sun-dried tomatoes, added 2 cloves of garlic slices to each, a pinch of dry basil, Provençal herbs, rosemary and a mixture of peppers. You don't have to add all the seasonings!
I poured hot oil over the tomatoes and screwed the lids on. Covered it with a blanket and left it to cool.

According to the mother-in-law, after seaming, the sun-dried tomatoes continue to cook - becoming saturated with spicy aromas, reaching the desired consistency and softness. The later you try them, the better the taste will be.

A few tips...

I would like to warn those who are preparing sun-dried tomatoes in the dryer for the first time. The first pancake can come out lumpy if you don’t know some subtleties:

When the specified drying time has passed, check how the tomatoes are dried, just in case. Take 1-2 slices from different trays and fold them in half. They shouldn't ooze. If juice drips, dry them for 2-3 hours. Just don't turn it into chips.
Use coarse table salt, or sea salt. When dried, this salt draws moisture from the tomatoes, improves the taste and prolongs storage. You can increase the amount of salt to 3 tbsp. spoons per 1 kg of fresh tomatoes!
Only refined oil should be used. Olive is best, but sunflower is also possible.
Do not pour very hot, much less boiling, oil over the tomatoes. They will instantly turn black and become tough. Check the oil temperature using a wooden skewer. When immersing the skewer, it should not bubble. If it gets squeaky, turn off the heat and wait 10 minutes.
Sometimes, to prepare sun-dried tomatoes for the winter, it is recommended to scoop out the pulp and seeds. But I don’t recommend doing that. Yes, the drying time is reduced, but the taste of the tomatoes is not as bright. Plus, it will take much longer to prepare the tomatoes, and you will need to figure out what to do with the pulp.

Storing sun-dried tomatoes

In general, sun-dried tomatoes prepared at home do not last long - 2-3 months in the refrigerator. But this applies more to cases when they are dried in the oven or on the street.

Another reason why I decided to buy a dehydrator is the long-term storage of sun-dried tomatoes for 8-12 months.

My mother-in-law has jars in her pantry. He says not one has burst yet. The reason is that the dryer effectively removes all moisture and the food does not spoil. But I was afraid, and after cooling, I put the jars in the refrigerator.

The yield from a bucket of fresh tomatoes is three half-liter jars of sun-dried ones. The bad news is that they are eaten disastrously quickly. My husband and children finished the first can on the very first evening. The whole family ate the second one within a week. The third one is still standing, but I feel it won’t last long. I am glad that the tomato season is not over yet, the harvest is good. I will be making large reserves for the winter!