Sun-dried tomato

Tomate séchée

What it is

Drying strips about nine tenths of a tomato's water, and everything left behind concentrates in the same proportion — the free glutamate that reads as savouriness rises with it, which is why a dried tomato tastes of more than tomato. In Puglia and Sicily the halves were salted before they went onto the tufa rooftops, the salt starting the work the sun would finish.

In the kitchen

Treat them as a seasoning rather than a vegetable: 30 g chopped fine into a sauce for four does the work of a spoonful of anchovy. If they are bone dry, soak twenty minutes in warm water and keep the soaking water — it is tomato stock.

Goes with

Olive oil Garlic Basil Capers Anchovy Parmesan Oregano Pine nut

Same species

Bintje potato Black Krim tomato Bonnotte de Noirmoutier Chuño Datterino tomato Eggplant

Also used with

Stracciatella di bufala

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