Awhile back I tried to replicate a yummy sun-dried tomato pesto that I had on Mother’s Day. What I came up with was pretty darn good. Finger-lickin’ good, to be exact. I made that pesto with sun-dried tomatoes that came loose in a package, as opposed to packed in olive oil. I soaked the sun-dried tomatoes to reconstitute them and then proceeded to make my pesto.
Well……
I inherited a gigantic jar of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes when my good friend moved away last week. Of course, I had to make that pesto again. I mean, it’s been THREE WHOLE WEEKS since I licked the bowl clean from the last batch.
Making the pesto with the oil-packed tomatoes was far superior. The texture of the sauce was a little looser, but it was more than that. The tomatoes had retained their bright flavor and were sweeter–without the addition of sugar. The color was a deeper red due to some preservatives, which I tend not to like, but it didn’t really bother me in this application.
The verdict: making the pesto with sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil is not only acceptable, but much better than when using the reconstituted–which are also fine and tasty in their own right.