When I am drowning in cherry tomatoes or any other tomato, I make sun-dried tomatoes in the oven. Major pitfall: I forget them every time. Slicing each tomato is rather painstaking, and when they become little charred crisps it can be discouraging. Solution: use a very low oven (see below).

• A quantity of tomatoes that I can stand to slice, usually fitting into two roasting
• pans. Any low-sided roasting pan or jelly roll pan works.
• Drizzle of olive oil.
• Coarse salt.
• Herbs and garlic – optional. I prefer to keep the tomato flavor intense and
• unadulterated, but whole garlic cloves would be lovely, or chopped rosemary,
• oregano, etc.

Set oven to lowest setting: 170º-200º. Many recipes call for higher temps, but the tomatoes can turn too crispy or blacken easily.

Select a sharp knife, or sharpen your favorite. Slice cherry tomatoes in half, slicing through stem. Place skin-side down on pan, into which you’ve smeared olive oil on the bottom. Fill pan with tomatoes, but do not squeeze them in.

Roma tomatoes work fine too. Thickness should not be much more than ½-inch. (Takes too long to dehydrate). Otherwise, slice tomatoes in ½-inch wheels. Cut off stem end if the stem is big.

Sprinkle with a little salt. Bake till tomatoes are how you like them, anywhere from 3 to 8 hours. You can stop the process any time, and leave them in the oven until you come back to roast some more. If you want them done more quickly, use a hotter oven, but watch them.

They keep in the fridge for a long time, and they freeze well. I scrape every bit of olive oil and caramelized bits into my storage container.