The middle of winter can be a tough time for tomato lovers. We are about as far away from the end of last season as we are from the beginning of this summer’s harvest, and no member of the produce kingdom suffers such a noticeable lack of flavor when it’s imported, out of season, from some faraway place. So this time of year many people choose to simply forego tomatoes entirely, rather than suffer the indignity of a cardboard-flavored impostor.
Every summer I do what I can to hang onto tomato season by preserving as many as I can, when the price is low and the quality is high. My storage form of choice has been an oven-roasted tomato sauce which I freeze, then use for pasta and pizza throughout the year. But the summer before last, a farmer friend offered me several boxes of tomatoes at a price I could not refuse. So while I made my usual sauce, my wife tried her hand at something different.
She cut the tomatoes into thin slices, sprinkled the slices with salt, and laid them on a dehydrator tray. A few hours later, those juicy slices had dried into crispy tomato chips. They have a tangy flavor as bright as their color, and made for a delicious snack. Dehydrated produce is generally more nutritious than its frozen counterpart. Nonetheless, we promptly forgot all about them.
The problem is that we couldn’t seem to find a place for these crunchy red disks. I tried crumbling them onto salad, marinating them in olive oil and spices, baking them onto pizza, and many other ways. While they always tasted good, nothing we did ever caught on, and they never got eaten. So they languished in the freezer until we ran out of tomato sauce, and the kids wanted spaghetti.
Only then, after they spent a year and a half in the freezer, did I attempt to make sauce from my dehydrated tomatoes. And I was most pleased. The marinara was as smooth and vibrant as if I’d made the sauce from fresh, ripe tomatoes. It had a fresher flavor than that of my frozen sauce. Most importantly, and tellingly, the children approved.
Dehydrating tomatoes takes much less time and work during the summer than making a sauce, and doesn’t overheat the kitchen. In the winter I have plenty of time to make a sauce, and the opportunity to be more creative. By dehydrating the tomatoes you can use them to make any sauce you might want during the off-season, instead of making a vat of just one sauce in fall, like the marinara I typically make. The other day I used different spices to make a re-hydrated tomato sauce that was flavored with cumin instead of oregano. I used the sauce to make shakshuka, a Middle Eastern dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce. It tasted like summer shakshuka, seasoned with sunshine.
I’ve also begun using my dried tomatoes in soups, curries, even stir-fries. They add their acidic tang to the meal, while absorbing the surrounding juices and taking on the flavors around them.
So here are your marching orders: find some dehydrated tomatoes online, and explore the possibilities. Here are some tips for getting started with dehydrated tomato cookery. Next summer, you’ll dehydrate your own tomatoes. And this time next year, you’ll still be tasting that summer sunshine.
Sauce
This red sauce is bright and tangy, with a fresher taste than a sauce that was canned months ago. For an extra wintry touch I’ve added shredded carrots, which will completely disappear into the sauce.
1 ounce dried tomatoes
2 cups stock (I use chicken stock)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
½ cup finely grated carrot
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon red chile pepper powder or paprika or both
½ cup red wine
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
Salt to taste
Put the stock and dehydrated tomatoes into a sauce pan and simmer for about ten minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool slowly.
Add the olive oil to another pan and saute the onions, garlic and carrot. When the onions turn translucent, stir in the spices, then add the stock and tomatoes. Cook for about five minutes on medium heat, then turn off the heat and let it sit. When it’s cool enough to work with, add the contents of the pan to a blender and liquify. Return the smooth sauce to the pan, add the wine and vinegar and add salt to taste. Your sauce is ready.
Shakshuka
This Middle Eastern egg dish has developed something of a cult following in the last few years.
The sauce ingredients are almost the same as the sauce above. Simply omit the shredded carrots and wine, and substitute 1 tablespoon cumin for the oregano. You’ll need two-to-four eggs,, and a fresh garnish like parsley or cilantro.
Add a cup of shakshuka sauce to a pan, along with a cup of water. Heat it to a simmer on low/medium heat.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, one at a time – it’s easier to gently pour an egg into a poaching liquid than to crack it in. When the eggs are simmering, keep an eye on them as they approach your desired state of cooked. Some people use a tight fitting lid to do so, but then you risk overcooking the eggs.
When the eggs are done to your liking, garnish with the fresh herbs and set the pan on a hot pad and use it as a serving dish.