The beginning is essentially the same. Wash the tomatoes, dry them and trim away any black spots or blemishes. Cut them in half. Carefully scoop out the insides and seeds with a teaspoon — you can use them to make gazpacho later, by the way. Place the halves cut-side down on paper towels and blot away as much moisture as possible. From this point, the methods differ.
For the oven: line a baking tray with parchment lightly moistened with olive oil suitable for cooking. Arrange the tomatoes on it, cut-side up. Carefully season each half with coarse salt — I use pink Israeli salt — and pepper, sprinkle with herbes de Provence and dried garlic, and drizzle with oil. Preheat the oven to 100°C, then put the tray inside. Leave the door slightly ajar and keep the tomatoes there for 6–8 hours, until they reach the desired state, checking their appearance from time to time. The drying time depends on whether you are making a ready-to-eat snack or preserving them for winter. The longer they stay in, the drier they become.
In a dehydrator: arrange the tomatoes cut-side up on a tray. Season them in the same way, but dry, without oil. Set the temperature to 70°C. Dry for 5–7 hours, again depending on what you want to achieve.
If the aim is long-term storage, sterilise the jars and lids. If you will eat the tomatoes now, simply washing the jar and lid is enough.
Whichever drying method you use, the next steps are the same. Put the tomatoes into jars. Slice the garlic very thinly. Pour 100 ml of olive oil suitable for cooking into a frying pan or saucepan. Warm it gently, add the garlic and bring it almost to a boil. Quickly remove from the heat and immediately pour the oil over the tomatoes. Let them cool, then refrigerate. They can be served after 24 hours.
The finished tomatoes can be added to pizza, pasta and salads, placed on crispbread, or added to scrambled eggs or meat as it stews.