Mosaic Monday: Tomatoes!

These are from the market, but soon enough tomato plants will be showing up at the nurseries and we can grow our own! In the mean time, I found these beauties! and then I found a really interesting way to cook with them!

It's been a real lazy weekend here, not much going on, so I sat down to flip channels and see what was on TV. PBS had reruns of Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, which I like very much. I was sorry to see it go, and even more sorry to see the magazine go as well! This episode looked pretty cool. All kinds of weird science kitchen inventions and then a dessicated tomato! WHAT??? What are dessicated tomatoes? Powdered tomatoes? Ruth Reichl was making tomato powder. That looked pretty neat, especially when she spooned it over some pasta. Seems easy enough, but then it always does when THEY are doing it! The crazy science projects, I could do without!

Turns out this was really easy. No kidding. No smoke alarm, no mistakes, no work at all. All she did was slice the tomatoes thin and leave them in a very low oven for about five or six hours until they are completely dried. Then whiz it all up in a spice grinder until it becomes powder! It looked so good on TV. I can do this! It looked pretty interesting to have a powdered tomato. So that was my Sunday afternoon project! I did it. and look at that, it came out good. While those were in the oven, I fried up some chicken cutlets for dinner. After all, I did have five hours to kill.

This stuff is fantastic. Really deep tomato flavor. Totally concentrated. I thought I burned them but they were perfectly dried, cooked to a burnt rusty color. Take them out when they crumble in your hand and there is no moisture to them at all. I think I need to get more tomatoes! Amazing how 6 medium sized tomatoes made a little bit of powder. But this little bit of powder will definitely be gone in a day or two. Had to try it out, so I already sprinkled some on a piece of brick oven white from the bakery. Broiled the bread with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh garlic scraped on top, then when it was browned, I sprinkled some tomato powder on top. WOW! This is amazing stuff! I can see myself sprinkling this on everything. A little powder on some fresh mozzarella balls, drizzled with some olive oil and some fresh basil! AMAZING!

Dry them in the oven until they turn dry and rust colored

Whiz them in a spice grinder until they are powdered!

Amazing how six tomatoes end up as more than a few tablespoons of powder!

Delicious sprinkled on toasted garlic bread!

You can also sprinkle the powder on pasta, in soup, in a salad, the possibilities are endless! Really easy and so good!

Tomato Powder
Source: Gourmet – Diary of a Foodie
Printable Recipe

6 to 8 ripe tomatoes
one 17- by 11-inch nonstick bakeware liner such as a Silpat and a sheet pan
an electric coffee/spice grinder

Preheat oven to 175ºF with rack in middle. Put liner in a 4-sided sheet pan.
Cut tomatoes crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices and arrange in 1 layer in pan.
Dry tomato slices in oven, turning over once, until completely dehydrated and crisp, 5 to 5 1/2 hours. Cool completely.

Crumble tomato into grinder and grind to a fine powder. Transfer to a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl. Shake powder through sieve, then discard any pieces remaining in sieve.

Powder keeps in an airtight container at room temperature indefinitely.

Joining Mary from The Little Red House for another Mosaic Monday! Stop by the Little Red House to see lots of fantastic Mosaics every week!

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