Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I grow half a dozen Prince Borghese tomato plants specifically for sun-drying.  They are small elegant plum tomatoes that rarely get larger than the size of my thumb.  They are even tempered on the vine, too: slow to succumb to the blight and the skin rarely splitting however erratic the watering or rainfall.

With such a late start to cropping, almost a month later than normal, I suspect the one jar produced will be it for the year.  But then, I do have a jar left over from last year so all is not lost. 2012 was a bumper year; we ended up with five or six jars and gave away a few, too.  2013?  Rubbish!

The fruit get picked when they are as ripe as possible, but if I know we have only a few days of sunny weather before the clouds return I'll go for the orange ones as well.  The flavour will still be pretty good.

The tomatoes are halved lengthways along the natural seam in the fruit are laid on a metal tray lined with a silicone sheet.  A sprinkle of sea salt goes over them and that is it for prep.

I put a metal trivet over the tray and then put the whole lot in a muslin bag to keep the flies off.  And the wasps, who love to much their way through the flesh, as I discovered the first time!

And the finished product.  I wish you could just smell these; I have been known to open the jar in the depths of winter or after a prolonged dank spell of weather and just have a good deep lungful.

 The dark fruit will have the richest flavour and odour, the orange less pronounced.

And the uses?
Bread, risotto, omelette, pasta sauce, couscous, soups, stuffing in chickens, roasting under chops, in tarts, baking with goats cheese, soaking in olive oil to soften the tomato and flavour the oil ...  And eating straight from the jar!