Choosing the right tomatoes for drying
Your guilty pleasure is tomatoes, but you're starting to get tired of eating them in salads, coulis, or cooked. La Ferme de Sainte Marthe offers a simple solution: Dry your tomatoes.
Perfect for an aperitif or simply for snacking, sundried tomatoes retain their flavors and nutritional qualities.
Drying tomatoes doesn't require any special culinary skills. You just need to choose your tomatoes carefully and follow the instructions below.
CHOOSE YOUR TOMATOES TO DRY CAREFULLY:
To make successful sun-dried tomatoes, you need to choose tomato varieties that are not very juicy, contain few seeds and have dense, thick flesh.
The Money Maker, the De Berao, the San Marazano 2, the Roma, the Rio Grande or even the Green Sausage and the Roman Candle for a little color are ideal.
Money Maker AB: Very early, productive, vigorous variety, easy to grow, tolerant of a humid environment. 100 to 180 g. Round, uniform fruits. Dense flesh with few seeds.
De Berao AB: Vigorous, highly disease-resistant, productive Roma-type variety; sometimes called a tree tomato or vine tomato, renowned for its spectacular growth, which can climb up to 4m high in rich soil; staking required. Medium-sized, oval-shaped fruits. Thick, very firm flesh. Good storage. Mid-season.
San Marzano 2 AB: Late, productive variety, originating from Italy where it is a benchmark. 90 to 120g. Elongated fruits. Renowned for the flavor of its dense, firm flesh, with few seeds and juice.
Roma VF: Vigorous, productive variety, resistant to mildew, requiring neither pruning nor staking. Its fruits of 60 to 70 g are numerous, medium-sized and elongated.
Rio Grande NT: The Rio Grande tomato is a Roma type, native to Italy. It produces clusters of very fleshy, red, oval fruits, weighing approximately 70 g. Productive and resistant to VF.
HOW TO DRY YOUR TOMATOES
Steps to follow:
1) Wash the tomatoes, cut them in half and place them on a tray.
2) Wrap them in fine mesh burlap, close well to prevent insects from entering.
3) For 2 days, place the tray in the sun when it is at its highest. In the evening, bring the tray inside and place it in a warm room.
4) To finish drying, place the tray on the back shelf of your car. The passenger compartment is often very hot (around 40°C) and allows for proper drying. Remember to open the doors from time to time to freshen the air.
Drying tomatoes allows all the water to evaporate, allowing them to be stored for a relatively long time (about 1 year). Tomatoes are fully dried when they are as stiff as leather.
To store them properly, place your dried tomatoes in a tightly closed, dry container.
