Italian cuisine is famous not only for pizza and pasta. One of the amazing dishes that could only be born in this sunny country is sun-dried tomatoes. Of course, the Italians themselves make them outdoors on a summer sunny day. But in Russia it is difficult to create such conditions. And many, not knowing how to dry tomatoes at home, buy ready-made jars in the store. Only they are very expensive. But it is very easy to make such a preparation in the most ordinary kitchen.
For one small jar of dried tomatoes you need to take 1-1.5 kg of fresh. Small fruit (sort of "plum" or similar to it) is best suited. Just do not use too sweet, and then you will get a dessert instead of a snack. Depending on the size, cut into 2 or 4 pieces. If desired, remove the seeds, drain excess juice. This will reduce the cooking time. Lay it close to each other on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and greased with olive oil. Top sprinkled with sea salt, dried herbs (best suited are basil, oregano, thyme and dill). Add chopped garlic cloves. Put in the oven, heated to 100-130 degrees, and cook a snack for 4-5 hours, leaving the door ajar. Once all the liquid has evaporated, fold it into a jar with a tightly closing lid, shifting the layers with dried herbs and garlic. Pour all the olive oil. This is the simplest, but lasting way of how to dry tomatoes at home.
However, in the heat, when you do not even want to move, it is difficult to spend several hours in the kitchen with the stove on. Here in such cases, a recipe for how to make sun dried tomatoes in a microwave oven can help out . Only with its help you can do very little. Prepare the fruit in the same way as for the oven. Spread them tightly on the plate. Sprinkle with salt and herbs, sprinkle with olive oil. We put for 5 minutes at maximum power in the microwave. Let's rest for 10 minutes. We take out, merge the allocated juice into a cup. And again we send it to the microwave, for 3 minutes. Then leave it for 3 minutes, drain the juice and repeat the procedure. After that, we put them in a jar, shifting the layers of sliced garlic and herbs. Fill with collected juice and butter. We let it brew in the refrigerator for 12 hours. You can try.
Knowing how to dry tomatoes in the oven and microwave, you can experiment a little with the pouring and make them without the skin (for those who do not like it). First you need to prepare a fragrant oil, with which tomatoes will be preserved. To do this, warm it up a bit on the stove and add to it fragrant herbs (basil, oregano and thyme), hot and fragrant peppers and garlic. Let it brew for 2-3 days. Then remove all the seasonings so that the fragrant oil does not spoil. Now you need to prepare the fruit. To do this, cut them crosswise, drop them for a couple of minutes into hot water and peel them. Otherwise, this recipe for how to dry tomatoes, completely repeats the others. These tricks just allow you to make them more fragrant and delicate.
But you need not only to know how to dry tomatoes correctly, but also how to store them. For this, only glass jars with tightly closing lids are suitable. It is desirable to consume dried tomatoes for 2 weeks. If long-term storage is supposed, they should be poured with hot oil, and the jars should be sterile. But even in this case, it's not worth keeping them for more than a year. Although it is unlikely that this delicious appetizer will last long.