Wood Oven Dried Tomatoes

Slow roasting tomatoes is a great way to intensify their flavour. After a pizza-making session in our wood oven, we wanted to replicate sun-dried tomatoes using the retained heat from the oven for slow, overnight roasting. We used garlic, chilli, oregano, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. The result was better than anything we have bought in store. This can also be replicated in a conventional oven.

Ingredients: 

6 vine ripened tomatoes (you can do this with any tomato)
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Herbs – can use thyme, oregano, or any herb of choice
Dried chilli flakes
One garlic clove finely sliced

Method:

1. Cut tomatoes in half. Place in a baking tray suitable for a wood oven.
2. Sprinkle with a bit of each seasoning on each half.
3. If using a wood oven, wait for temperature to drop to around 150C. Roast overnight with door closed using retained heat.
4. If using a conventional oven, heat to 100C and roast for 2-3 hours, until shriveled like the image.
5. As a trial, we used plenty of garlic, stuffed into the tomatoes. Our garlic pieces were too thick as they were hard by the end of the process. This was a function of using a wood oven and being exposed to low heat for so long. We suggest using fine slithers of garlic instead.