They are great in oil and vinegar type dressings. I use about half and half oil/vinegar, 2 or 3 dried tomatoes, fresh garlic, salt, pepper and sometimes herbs - whatever suits your fancy. It keeps in the fridge for several weeks. This is a favorite of our family.

Also - they are tossed into hot or cold pasta sometimes, for added tomato flavoring.

Great in pizza toppings too.

I made a quickie salsa - using chopped green peppers, dried tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper and cilantro - when the real kind is not available, use in taco or burritos.

They can also be ground up with a bit of warm water in the blender for a pizza topping, if sauce is not available.

I'm sure there are many other uses, but these are just a few in our house.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Dried (cut in half first) and then marinaded in the fridge with a bottle of Wishbone Zesty Italian Salad Dressing. ;) We just keep a jar of them going and then dice them up for salads and for use on sandwiches, added to meatloaf and spaghetti and stew.

Also be sure to check out the discussion linked below.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Sun dried tomatoes discussion

gardener,

I dry zillions of cherry toms most summers (though it might be only half a zillion this year, since it's been so wet ;-) ).

I cut 'em in half, put on greased cookie sheets, salt lightly (sometimes), and put in a very low oven (150 degrees or so). Small batches in the toaster oven. After a couple of hours I check every half hour and pick out the done ones. (Since I have a lot of varieties, they dry at different rates. If I have a bunch almost all the same size and type, they are all done at about the same time.)

I store them in ziplock freezer bags in the freezer and eat them all winter long, mostly
- in pasta,
- in salads, and
- on pizzas.

The great thing about drying cherries is that you don't ahve to chop them to use them in these ways --- they come out kind of like large, flattish raisins, and you just throw 'em in whole!

I also use them in some dips, and in stews.

Good luck!

Zabby

Zabby, you need a good dehydrator! The oven method is costly and slow due to the lack or warm air movement.

I have a Deni dehydrator that my husband picked up last year for me. I would have looked for a better one ,no tempeture control, 5 trays, but this is what I have for now. Anyone familiar with this? I do however have a 48 inch stove with one large oven and 1 smaller one. It also has a fan for baking, so Ken, if I used my oven with the fan on I would think I would have enough air movement? Can see your point about cost (gas), but if I could dry 8 + trays at a time, should be worth it. Thanks to all for the above suggestions, will try them.

The fan might help, but most convection ovens don't pull in air from outside or expel room air into the oven. The fan is used to help move the hot air around inside, and if the door is left open, it would make the oven work harder, but the fan would not offer much help in drying things.