"Sun" Dried Tomatoes

All hail Joe, lord of the tomatoes! (I promised Joe he would receive proper credit for his contribution to these tomatoes - how was that, baby?) Anyhow, my brother-in-law John planted several tomato plants last spring, which grew like crazy leaving him with tons and tons of tomatoes. Among them were these little cherry tomatoes which John said were perfect for drying. I love sun-dried tomatoes (although I will go nowhere near a raw one) and actually had a pasta dish on the menu for this week that called for sun-dried tomatoes, so John and I decided to make some. Unfortunately neither of us thought to do it on Sunday when we were home - the tomatoes need to be in the oven for 6 hours so you have to stay close to home- so we ended up making Joe the official tomato cooker yesterday (and yes, he was THRILLED to help). John already knew how to roast the tomatoes - cut them in half, place cut side up on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake for 6 hours at 200 degrees - so we cut them up Sunday night and left them for Joe to salt and bake the next day.

These came out fantastic! They are so sweet and soft - yum! I can't wait to try them in pasta. My suggestion is to watch them closely towards the end of cooking. I ended up having to throw several away because they got too crisp in the oven. John's tomato plants are still flourishing so I'm sure we'll be making more of these soon!