As a millennial, I’m living for the resurgence of familiar elements of the pop culture I grew up with. Sure, there are things that I’d leave in the past (ahem, low-rise jeans, butterfly clips, and Sugar Ray), but in the late 1990s and early 2000s there was a lot to love.
Fashion trends (like jelly shoes) are back, but that’s not all: The foods and flavors millennials grew up with are experiencing a new life, too. One ingredient that brings me back to that time are sun-dried tomatoes. It was an ingredient that was added to every plate of chicken, pasta, or salad my mom set in front of me for years — until it totally disappeared. I then forgot about sun-dried tomatoes; I never saw them in any new and exciting recipes. But then Marry Me Chicken took the world by storm. And because of this unexpected (but indeed worth-the-hype) one-pan chicken, I’ve recently started adding sun-dried tomatoes back to my dinners — and I have to tell you, it tastes even better than I remembered.
What Makes Sun-Dried Tomatoes So Good
My mom loved trying new recipes and reading the latest issue of food magazines, and passed that love down to me. It’s how she came to learn about sun-dried tomatoes and ultimately why I’ve come to associate the flavor of this jarred pantry staple with my childhood dinner table. These tomatoes peaked in popularity at a time when you really couldn’t get decently flavored tomatoes out of season.
Sun-dried tomatoes are an ingredient that concentrates summer tomato flavor into something that is intensely and uniquely flavored. They add a sweet and umami-packed flavor to whatever you’re cooking. You can add them as an uncooked garnish to salads, or simmer them in sauces where they add flavor and a gorgeous rose-colored hue.
Sun-dried tomatoes can be made at home or picked up at the store, where they are dry-packed or oil-packed. We always had both in our pantry at home when I was growing up, and I do the same today. The dry-packed tomatoes have a chewier texture while the oil-packed jars are softer and plumper. The oil from the jars of tomatoes can also be used in salad dressings and as a cooking oil to infuse the entire dish with intense tomato flavor.