Sun Dried Tomatoes (without the sun :-)

Over the last month, most of us have hopefully seen a ripening up of our heirlooms.  One of my favourite  heirlooms is the Principe Borghese.  Originally from Italy, this heirloom is know best for being the "sun drying" tomato because it deep tomatoey taste that intensifies during the drying process.  While a great characteristic steeped in tradition, this heirloom is very versatile plant.  First, its productivity is excellent.  Its fruit is un-blemmished and very rarely cracks.  The taste has a wonderful balance of acid and sweet that is true to an old world heirloom tomato.  Below is a picture of my son who got his hands on a bag of freshly harvested fruit.  Needless to say, he enjoys the Principe Borghese straight off the vine.

Fresh is great, but I had to try sun-drying this heirloom in the true tradition of Italian sun dried tomatoes.  So I picked a bakers dozen, cut them in half and laid them out on baking sheets to let them dry.  In a couple of days, I should have beautiful, sun dried tomatoes.  Unfortunately I quickly realized that it might not be as easy as the term "sun dried" sounds.  With a quick internet search, I learned sun drying is specific to a low humidity climate which we do NOT observe here in SW Ontario.  Quickly, my sun dried endeavours wilted with mold and flies... I had to figure something else out.

The Oven
While I hate using the oven during the summer, it can maintain a very consistent low temperature that a bbq cannot.  I also am lucky enough to have a convection option which makes it very simple to circulate air for the purpose of drying.

Here is how I did it:

1: Wash and cut a bowl of your finest Principe Bourghese tomatoes.

2: Set your oven to approx. 60 degrees Celsius or 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  Depending on your oven you may need to increase or decrease the set temperature.  If you do not have a convection oven you could wedge the door open to create some air flow to help dry out the tomatoes.  Inevitably, the temperature will drop and you will need to turn it up.  If you have a convection oven you're set.  In both cases it is advisable to monitor the oven for the first hour or so you achieve the desired temperature.

 

3: Once your oven has warmed up.  Set your sliced heirlooms on a baking sheet and fire them in the oven.

Finally:  Hurry up an wait  

After 2 hours

After 4 hours

Try to maintain the oven temperature

10 hours later your sundried tomatoes should have the
consistency of a raisin.  Chewy with an intense tomato
flavour.  You can store them in a ziplock bag for months.