Sun dried tomatoes are, as the name suggests, tomatoes dried in the sun. In our treatment of sun dried tomatoes, we Americans have made a superstar of a food that Italians consider, at best, an understudy.
In southern Italy, where to eat means to eat tomatoes, oil-cured tomatoes serve as a second-best substitute for fresh, offered in fall/winter as an antipasto, or paired with coarse bread for a field worker’s lunch. In the north, tomatoes are rarely used – if at all.
America’s dried tomato madness began with a gourmet pizza – and spread to pasta, vegetable dishes, salad dressings, appetizers, especially anything made with pesto or goat cheese. Tomatoes are very good for cutting fat, and have an affinity for soft, creamy cheeses – that’s why they are served with prosciutto.
Southern Italians invented sun dried tomatoes – which are still slowly dried in the half-shade in that bone dry climate, placed on wooden trays, washed, halved, then fermented in olive oil for at least six weeks. They are used in the heavier, richer foods of fall/winter, where canned tomatoes, sauce or paste would not do. It takes two and one half months to dry and pack the tomatoes by hand. In addition to the time and demand factors, tomato harvesting is seasonal. The harvest season begins in late June and continues through late August. Tomatoes can be dried in direct sunlight, or under pergolas. Sunning reduces the moisture of the tomato, while concentrating and intensifying its natural flavors. After the drying, the tomatoes are packed in olive oil and seasonings.
Sun dried tomatoes are like having an entire box of chocolates all in one bite. The are fat and salt free, with a sweet, robust flavor, creating the perfect healthy snack.
Italians call this final product “pumate/pumente”. In the drying process, the tomatoes dry to one-seventeenth (it takes 17 pounds of fresh tomatoes to end up with one pound of dried tomatoes).
Our Napoleon pumate are made: from fresh sun ripened tomatoes, are bright red (no artificial colors!), are permeated by the perfume of added herbs and spices, preserved in extra virgin olive oil, and taste ten times the flavor concentration of fresh…the result – Napoleon pumate!