Even though apple-picking season is really about over, and the basil is definitely done, it seems like up until last week we were still picking tomatoes at the farm. I sort of knew what to do with all of the paste tomatoes I picked. Those ended up in a crockpot overnight along with some onions, garlic, and basil in order to make sauce ~ which always turned out pretty good. But what to do with the 2 quarts of cherry and pear tomatoes in our share? I was about to skip a week of picking those, because I still hadn’t used the 2 quarts sitting on my kitchen table from the week before. That’s when I met Jane.
We were picking basil near each other ~ lots of basil, when she asked if I was making pesto. When I said yes, she smiled in approval and said, “It’s such a great investment! And there’s nothing like eating pesto in the winter ~ a wonderful taste of summer in every bite!”
“Have you picked your cherry tomatoes yet?” she asked.
“Actually, I was thinking of skipping those this week, because I’m not even close to finishing the ones I picked last week,” I lamented. “What do you do with yours?”
” I make sun-dried tomatoes!” she happily proclaimed.
“Oh, but I don’t have a dehydrator,” I replied.
“Neither do I. I make mine in the oven ~ set as low as it can get ~ for 8 hours or more.”
“So, could you describe to me exactly how you do it?” I asked.
“Wash them. Cut them in half. Place them cut-side-up on a cookie sheet. Bake on the oven’s lowest temperature all day. I have some in my oven right now ~ just turned it off to come to the farm, but will turn it back on when I get home,” she explained.
Oh happy day! I thanked her for the inspiration, made a beeline for the cherry tomatoes, and joyfully picked 2 overflowing quarts.
The only problem with this whole idea is that in this “sun-dried” form, I can eat them like candy! I just about finished an entire bowl of them before I could pour them into a plastic bag and store them in the freezer for future use. Oh well. At least they get eaten. A couple of bags did make it to the freezer, and I’ve even used them in one new dinner recipe recently.
What I really want to make is this sun-dried tomato pesto!
My friend Christie introduced me to sun-dried tomato pesto one day while strolling through Boston’s North End and visiting her favorite little Italian grocery store. Oh. My. I think we nearly ate a whole container of it (along with some amazing cheese, prosciutto, bread, and gluten free crackers) on the drive back home, and I’ve been dreaming about it ever since! So delicious…
Fall is definitely at its peak here ~ absolutely beautiful. Really, there is nothing like it.
Bracing myself for what’s to come, though.
At least there’s a bit of summer in my freezer this year!
Oh, this is wonderful! I have way too many cherry tomatoes that I have just stopped picking from sheer exhaustion of looking at them. We are tomatoed out around here, but I think this just might be the solution I need. Thank You!
Oh yum yum yum! Sun dried tomatoes are one of my favorite foods, too. I found some amazing ones at market in Italy last weekend and munched down half the bag on the drive home! Now I'm trying to ration them but it's awfully difficult… maybe I'll have to try making my own! What a great idea!