What is a "plum" tomato?

[marmalady]

Now that ya know what they are, make one of my most favorite things with 'em!

Roasted Plum - Roma - San Marzano - tomatoes

Line a baking sheet with foil, and lightly oil the foil. Heat oven to 300.

Cut of the top stem portion of the tomatoes, and halve them lengthwise; place on the baking sheet skin side down; salt/pepper to taste, and drizzle good olive oil over them. Roast for 45 minutes to one hour, until the tomatoes have lost a good bit of their juice and are starting to caramelize. Cool, and for storage, stack them in a clean jar and cover with more oil.

There are loads of seasonings you can add - thyme, garlic, etc., but I like to do mine plain, then add seasonings to the dish I'm making them with.

Totally low fat salad dressing - put some of the tomatoes in the processor, with vinegar of choice, herbs of choice, roasted or raw garlic, and pulse so some chunks still remain.

pasta sauce - Heat some olive oil in a skillet, add some garlic slices or minced garlic, some shallot, saute a minute or so; chop the tomatoes roughly, add to skillet, along with herbs of choice; saute a minute or so to blend flavors, and add some chopped spinach/broccoli rabe/kale/arugula, and cook until just wilted. Add a little of the pasta water if sauce is too thick.

Although of course it's always best to use absolutely ripened tomatoes, this is good for even the anemic looking winter tomatoes, because the roasting concentrates the flavor. Also good with cherry tomatoes, just watch the cooking times.

[mudbug]

marmalady,

Thanks. I do something similar which I've posted somewhere here before.

I take garden fresh tomatoes, slice them, and lay them on food dehydrator trays. They are sprinkled with my own homemade herb-infused kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Then I take them outside, (keep them off the ground) to dry in the sun.

At the same time, I'll pour olive oil into a bowl and throw some freshly hand picked herbs from the herb garden, coarse chop them and mix them into the oil (add salt and pepper if you wish), also to sit in the heat of the sun. This infuses the oil tremendously in a couple of hours. (No waiting around for days or weeks in a jar.)

We'll dip fresh bread or crustini into the oil or use it for whatever... if we don't use the sun dried tomatoes all up, I'll stack them in a glass jar and pour the oil in making sure there's enough oil to cover the top of the tomatoes. (Add fresh herbs if you wish, and/or roasted garlic cloves.)

They'll be the best you've ever had. Different than oven dried tomatoes and they make gorgeous gifts.

This summer I may try making some with schewan pepper, some with sugar (for caramelization), the possibilities are endless!

And I don't even like tomatoes that much! LOL!

[Pongi]

I've nothing to add to your recipes...they're just my favourite ones!
Only a curiosity: in Italy (where of course plum tomatoes are widespread and pretty cheap) they aren't called "plum" but "pear" tomatoes (POMODORI PERINI)...

Pongi

[marmalady]

CC, re sundrying your own - don't they take a long time to dry? I've wanted to try that - even have some old (I mean antique!) screens in the garage I was going to clean up and use, but am afraid that unless we get lots of hot, dry days without rain, they'll mold? Any tips.

Schewan (sp?!) tomatoes!!!! Awesome!

[mudbug]

marmalady,

A long time to dry? I suppose that's a matter of opinion. If it's 85 or above on a hot summer day, I can put them out around 11am, they'll get full sun that way. I just forget about them until late afternoon and the sun goes down and they're done! I suppose you could always finish them off to your liking in a low oven if needed. Oven recipes usually call for them to sit overnight with low heat.

It helps to have something that is solid black under the trays. If you use the screens, be sure they're foodsafe and coated with oil. I would also use a couple of sticks of wood or something underneath the screen so it's not sitting directly on a solid surface and air can flow freely underneath.

I find that the top of my car or the grill lid turned upside down works best.

Also, drying time will very much depend on how thin you slice your tomatoes. You could always experiment with different thicknesses in one day. Just cut one tomato one thickness and another a little thinner or thicker. See what works best for you. There are so many variables like humidity, heat, variety of tomato, that unless Cook's Illustrated does an article, there's only one way to find out for yourself.



Try it! Let us know how it goes!

[marmalady]

Thanks, CChiu, I will try it this summer, thanks to you! I just thought they'd take much longer to dry out. I had some some reading on drying chili peppers a few years ago, when I went on a tear, and planted about 15 different kinds in my garden! I wanted to try drying them, but the instructions I had said it took a few days. I couldn't count on the Jersey weather to be hot/dry enough for a few days to accomplish that, so I assumed tomatoes took the same amount of time.

[Suzanne]

Since I live in an apartment in the middle of the city, I can't sun-dry anything. But I've had good success oven-drying tomatoes. Cut in half, empty out the seeds (and gooshy stuff if there is any*), lay out on sheet pans, and put in the oven at the lowest possible temp. Turn over at some point. This takes quite a while, since the heat has to be very, very low (lest you cook them instead of drying); time depends on how wet the tomatoes were in the first place. Just to be on the safe side, I store the dried tomatoes in the freezer.

* if I'm doing beefsteak-type tomatoes and have a lot of tomato innards, I usually drip the goosh (like making juice for jelly) to get some tomato water. Makes a good addition to stock or sauces.

[mudbug]

Suzanne,

Can't use the roof? This is very similar to marmalady's post above.

Pongi,

They're wide spread and cheap here too, just called "Roma Tomato" instead, of course, different in other parts of this country.


Interesting use of language. We have "plum tomatoes" we sub-define a "pear tomatoes" as long as they are shaped like pears...

[Suzanne]

Nah, there's always just too much dirt in the air down here (even before 9/11). The tomatoes would be coated with soot before they had a chance to dry. BTW, thanks for the GORGEOUS pictures -- they really make me long for summer!

[mudbug]

Anyone drying any tomatoes yet?

[marmalady]

We don't start getting tomatoes up here in Jersey til middle-end fo July; and then I'm too busy eating them to start drying them! I only start thinking about drying/canning/freezing around September!

[mudbug]

It's that time... what tomatoes are you planting this year?