Many years ago, I stood on a terraced hillside in the ancient Sicilian town of Ragusa Ibla, looking at the spectacular view. All along the rock walls were trays of tomatoes and tomato paste, spread out to dry in the hot sun. Although sun-dried tomatoes appear to be trendy in America, they are part of a strong Italian tradition of keeping tomatoes in the repertoire of the cuisine when fresh, ripe tomatoes are out of season.
Sun-dried tomatoes are available dry or packed in oil. The dry ones need to be reconstituted in a little water or they will be too chewy. However, soaking them can leach out a lot of the flavor. (If you use oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, you do not have to soak them.) With the dry tomatoes, soak a third in hot water to get a full-flavored tomato liquid to add to the onion mixture, then add the rest of the tomatoes without soaking. They will soften enough if you prepare the onion mixture a few hours ahead of time. Combining the tomatoes with currants is an Arabic touch, also part of the Sicilian tradition.
From Kitchen Conversations, by Joyce Goldstein.
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