🍅 — Enjoy Summer Flavor All Year Long!
When cherry tomatoes are at their sweetest and most plentiful, it’s the perfect time to preserve them for later. Instead of letting an overflowing garden harvest go to waste, turn those little tomatoes into intensely flavorful homemade dried cherry tomatoes.
They’re incredibly easy to make, require very little hands-on work, and can be used in pasta, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, eggs, soups, sauces, and so much more. Drying concentrates the tomatoes’ natural sweetness and gives them a wonderfully chewy texture. (Frugally Blonde)
🍅 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy to make
- A wonderful way to use a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes
- No complicated canning process
- The flavor becomes sweeter and more concentrated
- Perfect for freezing for longer storage
- Delicious in countless recipes
- Great for red, yellow, orange, or mixed cherry tomatoes
The key is patience. The tomatoes need time to slowly lose their moisture and concentrate their flavor.
🍅 Homemade Dried Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
For the tomatoes:
- 2 pounds fresh cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning or oregano, optional
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced, optional
- Fresh basil or parsley, for serving, optional
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Sharp knife
- Spatula
- Airtight freezer containers or freezer bags
👩🍳 Instructions
1. Prepare the tomatoes
Preheat your oven to 225°F (107°C).
Wash the cherry tomatoes thoroughly and dry them well.
Slice each tomato in half from top to bottom.
If you’re working with particularly large cherry tomatoes, you can cut them into quarters.
2. Arrange on the baking sheet
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the tomatoes cut-side up in a single layer.
Try not to crowd them. Leaving a little space between the tomatoes allows moisture to escape more efficiently.
3. Season
Lightly drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning or oregano if using.
For extra flavor, add a small amount of minced garlic.
Don’t overdo the oil. You want the tomatoes to dry rather than essentially roast in oil.
4. Slowly dry the tomatoes
Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook for approximately 3–5 hours, depending on the size and moisture content of the tomatoes.
Start checking them around the 3-hour mark.
The finished tomatoes should look noticeably shriveled and concentrated. They should be chewy and dried but not necessarily hard or brittle.
Smaller tomatoes may finish sooner, while particularly juicy tomatoes can take longer.
Low-temperature oven drying is a simple way to concentrate the tomatoes’ sweetness and create a texture similar to sun-dried tomatoes. (The View from Great Island)
5. Cool completely
Remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow them to cool completely on the baking sheet.
Once cooled, they’re ready to use immediately or package for later.
❄️ How to Keep Them for Months
For the easiest long-term option, freeze the dried tomatoes.
Spread the cooled tomatoes on a baking sheet and freeze them until solid. Then transfer them to freezer bags or airtight containers.
Remove only the amount you need each time.
Frozen tomatoes can be stored for many months, making this an excellent way to preserve your summer harvest for the colder months. (writes4food)
Important: If you want a shelf-stable product stored at room temperature, don’t simply put dried tomatoes in oil and seal a jar. Oil-packed vegetables require an appropriate tested preservation method because improperly stored foods can create food-safety risks. For a simple home method, refrigeration or freezing is the safer choice.
🍝 Ways to Use Your Dried Cherry Tomatoes
This is where they really shine!
🍝 Pasta
Chop a handful and toss them with hot pasta, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan, and fresh basil.
🍕 Pizza
Scatter them over homemade pizza before baking.
Their concentrated sweetness pairs beautifully with mozzarella and basil.
🥪 Sandwiches
Add a few to grilled cheese, turkey sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, or a simple mozzarella-and-basil sandwich.
🥗 Salads
They’re fantastic in green salads, pasta salads, grain bowls, and Mediterranean-style salads.
🍳 Breakfast
Chop them into scrambled eggs, omelets, frittatas, or breakfast sandwiches.
🥘 Soups and Stews
A small handful can add concentrated tomato flavor to soups, stews, beans, and sauces.
🐟 Chicken and Fish
Combine them with garlic, olive oil, herbs, and lemon for an easy topping for baked chicken or fish.
🧄 Homemade Tomato Spread
Blend dried tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, herbs, and a little Parmesan to make a flavorful spread or pasta topping.
🌿 Try Different Flavors
You can easily customize each batch.
Italian Style
Add oregano, basil, garlic, and a little Parmesan when serving.
Spicy
Add crushed red pepper flakes before drying.
Garlic & Herb
Use garlic, thyme, rosemary, and oregano.
Mediterranean
Combine the dried tomatoes with olives, feta, basil, and olive oil.
Sweet & Simple
Use only tomatoes, a little salt, and pepper. Their natural sweetness becomes surprisingly intense as they dry.
💡 A Few Helpful Tips
Choose ripe tomatoes. The better the tomatoes taste before drying, the better they’ll taste afterward.
Dry them well after washing. Excess water increases drying time.
Don’t overcrowd the pan. Give the tomatoes room for moisture to escape.
Check them frequently toward the end. Smaller tomatoes can dry much faster than larger ones.
Don’t worry if they look dramatically smaller. That’s exactly what you want. Much of their water has been removed, leaving behind concentrated tomato flavor.
Save the tomato harvest. If your garden is producing more cherry tomatoes than you can possibly eat, drying and freezing them gives you another way to preserve that summer harvest.
🍅 The Best Part? You Don’t Have to Wait Until Next Summer
There’s something wonderful about opening the freezer in the middle of winter and pulling out tomatoes that still remind you of summer.
Instead of watching an enormous bowl of cherry tomatoes slowly spoil on the counter, spend a few hours drying them while you do other things around the kitchen.
Then package them up and put them away.
Months later, you can add them to a steaming bowl of pasta, a homemade pizza, a sandwich, or a simple salad and get that concentrated taste of summer all over again.
One overflowing summer harvest can become delicious ingredients for meals throughout the year. 🍅❤️
