Winter in Japan is very dry, so I often take advantage of the weather to make dried food. I especially enjoy making dried mushrooms and dried tomatoes. Making those is quite simple. I just slice them and dry, and that's it. It takes a couple of days for them to completely dry.

Dried mushrooms are perfect for Japanese dishes, while dried tomatoes work well in Italian cooking. We can buy dried mushrooms at stores, but I prefer making them on my own because I can choose organic, high quality ingredients.

I buy these tomatoes in the picture below from my neighboring farmer, and they're organic as well.

It's very interesting that dried foods usually shrink to about half their original sizes, but their nutrition become much richer.

Once they're fully dried, I gather them into a small jar and cover them with olive oil. I haven't added any herbs yet, but I'm going to add my homemade dried oregano, dried rosemary, and fresh bay leaves from my garden. They'll become great ingredients for pasta.

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