Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes Are The Simple Way To Elevate Pizza

Few foods pack a burst of deliciousness into as small a morsel as oven-dried cherry tomatoes. When deprived of moisture in the oven-drying process, cherry or grape tomatoes lose about 75% of their surface area, shrivel up, and turn a deep, vibrant red. Their sweet, tomatoey flavor — chock-full of umami savoriness – also becomes concentrated. So these pint-sized culinary gems aren't just fun to make; they're an easy way to enhance the look and flavor of a wide variety of dishes. They elevate coleslaw, for instance, and would be fantastic in a BLT pasta salad. But there's another dish where the dried tomato turns the mundane into the magical: pizza.

Oven-dried tomatoes add extra flavor, depth, and color to pizza when incorporated as a pizza topping. Their intensified sweetness and tang beautifully complement the savory notes of cheese, pepperoni, and other ingredients, while the umami brought by the tomatoes adds a deep richness and enjoyable complexity. Finally, of course, dried tomatoes present incredible visual appeal dotted around a pizza pie, whether you've loaded it with everything or kept it nice-and-easy cheesy. If there were a contest for the culinary equivalent of a glow-up, oven-dried tomatoes would surely take home the prize — and best of all, they're remarkably easy to prepare at home.

To achieve the high-flavor hit your pizza will get from oven-dried tomatoes, your first step will be to cut them in half crosswise with a good serrated knife. Don't let the thought of all that slicing deter you — an easy hack for slicing multiple cherry tomatoes is to sandwich them between two container lids or plates and carefully run a knife through the gap, tackling a bunch in one fell swoop.

Once your cherry tomatoes are halved, lay them out on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, and give them a light dusting of salt. Place the sheet on the center rack of an oven preheated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and let the tomatoes cook for four-and-a-half to five hours. You'll know they're done when they're slightly wrinkled and shriveled with a dried texture.

It's a good idea to chop your dried tomatoes into small pieces before putting them on the pizza to bake. This ensures their intense flavor is evenly distributed, preventing any single bite from being overwhelmed by their sweet tanginess. This way, you'll enjoy their deliciousness throughout the entire pizza pie.