Its that time of year when the temperatures start to cool off a bit at night and the tomatoes and other plants really start to set fruit! I’m a little crazy about tomatoes! They are the essence of summer… along with peaches and basil and okay any other delicious fruit, herb or plant you can grow in your own backyard! 🙂 This year I started my tomatoes from seed under lights in February and planted them under walls of waters at the first of April. 18 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes all in the space of a 4×14 garden box! That’s a lot of tomatoes and not really a lot of space. They are doing well and I have to say I have been pretty proud of myself this year! As the tomatoes come on more and more I have often wondered in the past what to do with them all. There really hasn’t been enough at one time to can and there’s too much to eat all at once. So I came up with this recipe and have been loving and enjoying every single tomato I grow for a few years now! It’s so simple and delicious you may just eat an entire bottle in one sitting! … not that I’m guilty of that or anything… do ta do. 🙂
Recipe
Chop 5lbs. tomatoes into fairly large pieces (they will significantly decrease in size). I usually cut my large ones into 4-6 pieces and cut the smaller ones in half. Place into a large gallon size ziplock bag.
In a large ziplock gallon size bag drizzle about 1/4 cup olive oil, 3-4 T. Balsamic dressing, sprinkle about 1 T. Italian Seasoning and add Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste.
Gently toss the tomatoes inside the bag making sure everything is distributed evenly. Place in fridge for 6-10 hours and allow to marinate.
Strain the tomatoes through a slotted spoon and place on a jelly roll pan. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 8-12 hours depending on how big the tomato pieces are. Cook until they have shrunk in size and have caramelized a bit.
Once finished place into 2 pint jars. Drizzle a little bit more olive oil on them (1 T.). Keep in fridge for 2 weeks (if they last that long) or the freezer for several months. I use my oven dried tomatoes for pasta, pizza, bruschetta and lots of other things!
Glad to find your blog. I am having a hard time finding your recipes though. I’m looking for a way to make fresh pesto and freeze it as you mentioned on Studio 5. Can you help me find this recipe and figure out how to navigate other recipes you have posted. When I click on recipes by category or type I don’t find anything. Thanks.
I apologize, this website is new and we are still working on trying to figure out all the kinks. The pesto recipe is under “growing and using herbs:basil”
You can go to the categories tab on your right hand side and click on herbs and it will come up that way also. For freezing the pesto just make sure you leave an inch of space from the top and you will be good to go! Thanks for visiting!