What do you do when the end-of-summer tomatoes start to lose quality. Have a small cry for love lost, then crank your oven down to 200 degrees F and get ready for Oven Dried Tomatoes. Any time you get not-so-good tomatoes from the farmer’s market it’s a let down, especially if you’re a tomato snob lover like me. But, knowing that I can make tomaoto gold out of tomato poop makes me a happy camper.

The process is really easy. Just slice your mealy excuses for tomatoes long-ways or cross-ways and place them on a wire rack on a sheet pan. I like sea salt, cracked pepper and good (GOOD) olive oil on them. Once they’re dressed, put them in the oven and set a timer for 90 minutes. The timing on this is variable but 1.5 hours usually does the trick if your slices are roughly 1/8 inch thick. I pull mine just when they are starting to get crunchy then place them in a bowl and cover with olive oil. They’re ready to eat as-is, but I like to let them marinate a bit. The bruschetta above was made after 1 day in the oil (I just used the oil that the tomatoes were in). Easy, fresh and delicious.