Italian Oven Dried Tomatoes

Every year I grow  two types of tomatoes, plum tomatoes for drying and regular tomatos for canning and eating fresh. I plant one of each, that is plenty of tomatoes, usually I can not keep up with the harvesting.

Drying tomatoes is easy and I use them in breads, soups, salads, and any recipe that needs a bit of color and punch of taste. I have a dehydrator, and all I do is slice them and put them into the dehydrator out on the porch. Once they are dry I put them jars for safe keeping.

I came across this recipe and it's a good one, especially if you don't have a dehydrator and want to put up a few tomatoes for the season. I use this recipe if I am going to put the tomatoes with herbs and olive oil.

READY IN: 55 mins
YIELD: 4 half pints
Ingredients

• Ripe Italian tomatoes, (Roma) sliced open - enough to cover a cookie sheet
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil - extra needed too top off jars
• 2 tablespoons dried Italian herb seasoning (such as basil, oregano or rosemary)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 225°.
2. Combine tomatoes, 2 T. olive oil, herbs, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste in a mixing bowl.
3. Arrange tomatoes in rows on a cookie sheet- with parchment paper
4. Bake 1 hr.
5. Cool to room temperature, about 15 min.
6. Place in 4 half-pint canning jars - you may have extra
7. Add extra olive oil to cover tomatoes in each jar.
8. Tightly cover jars.
9. Refrigerate.
10. **Note: Olive oil will solidify in the refrigerator, but this won't affect the tomatoes. The oil will re-liquefy at room temperature.