“Sundried” Tomatoes, Garlic, and Rosemary in Olive Oil

In any case, it’s almost Fall and I’ve broken out the Nesco Snackmaster Pro dehydrator I bought almost 5 years ago, when I first forayed into the world of drying fruits and vegetables. I haven’t tried meats yet (even though they give you packages of meat curing seasonings) but I imagine it would work just as well.

My cherry tomatoes, despite it getting quite cool at night, are still going strong, and I’m overrun with pounds and pounds of them in my fridge. One can really only eat so many tomatoes, right? I could sauce them, but because they are all different colors, the sauce would come out roughly the color of vomit, and due to the high sugar content of cherries, probably too sweet anyway.

So here’s where the dehydrator comes in handy. I bought this thing myself and have been using it every year (so this isn’t a sponsored review or anything like that) and I like how many tiers it has and how fast it dries the fruits I put in (I’ve done apples, tomatoes, strawberries, goji berries), but not when I attempted to dry flowers (my edible chrysanthemum for tea) because it caused them to be discolored. I don’t know if it’s the type of flowers or the temperature setting for their flowers, but at least for chrysanthemum, it doesn’t come out pretty. I haven’t done herbs in it because I just hang bunches of herbs around and they dry very quickly that way anyway. I’m also very happy with how long it’s lasted–5 years and counting for something like this is great!

One thing that I noticed is that the apple chips and strawberries only become crisp once they’ve been cooled–they’ll still be rubbery right out of the dehydrator, but give it a few minutes and they’ll firm right up, so don’t be alarmed if you see that.

I washed the tomatoes, dried them with a paper towel, and halved them, although you could just poke a hole in the skin to allow the moisture to be pulled out, but this dries faster. Then you set it and forget it until the next day. It’s not a quiet unit, by any means, but no worse than a dehumidifier or an air conditioner would be.

I checked them the next day and they were nice and dry, and now it was time to store them. I bought a nice bottle of olive oil specifically for this purpose. As a word of advice: Use glass jars as plastic may leech the flavor into the olive oil, and no one likes plastic tasting olive oil.

Ingredients:

• Cherry (or other types) tomatoes, halved and dried
• Fresh rosemary sprigs
• Cloves of garlic, slightly crushed
• Glass jars with tops
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Recipe:
1. Place tomatoes, rosemary, and garlic cloves inside the glass jars.
2. Fill jars with extra virgin olive oil until all the dry ingredients are submerged.
3. Keep in the fridge and use within a week.***
4. Optional: Pressure cook the jars which will raise the temperature to 250 Fahrenheit and is enough to kill the spores and infuse the flavor faster. It is still recommended to be used quickly.

***I’m highlighting this part in bold and red because it’s very important that we are aware of the risks of botulism when it comes to submerging fresh herbs in olive oil (the anaerobic environment causes the spores to multiply). Keep it in the fridge and using it within a week or two of making will ensure you and your family do not get sick from it. Infected oils will look, smell, and taste fine so take precautions when making this. Or, keep the ingredients separate and make it 24 hours ahead of time of use.