Bringing Italy to Andalucía

According to my neighbour she had never heard of sun-dried tomatoes nor where I could buy them so one day last year I made my own.  

It seemed strange that with a plentiful supply of ripe local tomatoes, wall-to-wall sunshine, love and time wasn’t used to make them. The procedure is straight forward enough and the tomatoes keep their nutritional value, they are high in lycopene, antioxidants, and vitamin C, and low in sodium, fat, and calories.

This is what I do:

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and de-seed making sure the juice is discarded too. Some people peel the tomatoes but I don’t see the reason for that. Pat the flesh dry with kitchen paper and place on a sheet of baking paper and leave in the full sun to dry… take inside overnight as it will take a few days for them to dry out – you’ll have to keep your eye out for insects though. Alternatively, leave them in a warm oven (on the lowest setting) overnight. That’s if you do not own a food dehumidifier. I find they are best preserved in oil. 

I’ve since found sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil and vinegar sold in small jars at larger Carrefour supermarkets but they are expensive and anyway you cannot beat home-made. 

P.S. If using the sunshine method and you get fed up waiting then don't worry as you now have sun-blushed tomatoes to enjoy instead.