Dried small tomatoes

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g cocktail tomatoes, firm, elongated, sweet (approx. 5 cm long)
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• olive oil
• Salt (Fleur de Sel)
• Pepper, black, freshly ground
• rosemary

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

The tomatoes are halved from the stem end. (The variety I used had such a tiny stem that it didn’t need to be removed.) Lightly brush a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the halved tomatoes on it, cut-side up. Sprinkle fleur de sel (plain salt will certainly work too), sugar, and pepper on top. Roughly chop the rosemary and sprinkle it over the top. Distribute the crushed garlic cloves among the tomatoes. Drizzle everything with a little olive oil. Preheat the oven – this is how I did it: fan oven 75°C (169°F) for 30 minutes, middle rack. Then reduce the temperature to 60°C (140°F), for one hour at the most. A wooden spoon is placed in the door the entire time so the moisture can escape. Of course, you’ll need to allow more time for larger tomatoes. With smaller tomatoes, be more careful not to overheat them for too long. After the tomatoes were thoroughly cooled, I placed them in jars with the rosemary and garlic and filled them with good olive oil. Tamp the jars open a bit to get the air bubbles to the top. Screw the lids shut and put them in the fridge. How long do they keep? Probably a few weeks. My first use was as a filling for small veal roulades. But they’re also delicious on their own on bread or as a tapas dish. Or as a pizza topping, in salads, with spaghetti sauces, or in bread baking.