These cherry tomatoes blossom in the oven into these tiny slices of tomato goodness. It’s my favorite way to elevate a recipe and it’s my favorite way to preserve cherry tomatoes that aren’t getting used. I make salsa with them or add them to my pasta salad and I never get tired of them. It’s an easy recipe that makes enough to share.

Cherry tomatoes alone have a lot of juicy tomato flavor, so it makes sense that as you concentrate the water baking in the oven that they becomes something new. I can snack on these for days. It’s such an easy process, so let’s talk about it.

Slicing 6 cups of tiny tomatoes is not joke. Use the lid method. Smash two flat sides of lids together and use a knife to cut between them. This ensures you cut quickly and efficiently each tomato in half. Next step is to arrange your tomatoes on a baking tray cut-side up. We don’t want to lose any of the water in the tomato to baking, we want it to stay inside. Next step is salting each one. This will further concentrate the flavor and focus on maximum moisture loss. You do not have to salt them if you are trying to avoid salt.

Throw these trays in the oven at 250 degrees for two hours. It’s a low and slow process that you don’t have to babysit. Set it in the oven and forget it! Leave them in the oven turned off after they’ve cooked to give them more of a chance to dry out and become more leathery. It gives them the signature chew.

These are one of those recipes that you can turn into a gift for a friend, a canning project, or just an idea to do with leftover tomatoes. I hope you try it because it’s my personal secret to a great salad and now yall know!