parents have brought back a big bag of sun-dried tomatoes from italy

[WestmorlandSausage]

...and given them to me

I do a lot of cooking from scratch but nothing that has ever really called for sun-dried tomatoes other than bread. Can't really think what to do with them, I tend to use fresh or sun-blush tomatoes when cooking.

Any suggestions?

My friend stuffs chicken breasts with them...she adds some kind of soft cheese too. Very nice!

I don't really like them either, but could you make a flavoured oil with some?

Oops, pressed too soon: actually if you can be bothered, I'd get some decent olive oil and bottles, add the tomatoes and pass them off as Christmas presents!

add them to pasta sauce
serve them as antipasti(starter) with nice bread
wilson i like ur thinking :-)

They are very nice in rice and chicken type risotto dishes,
You could put them in a jar and pour over ordinary olive oil, add a sliced garlic clove and leave for a few weeks to plump up and then chop up and add to any pasta sauce or eat with bread, ham and cheese or put in a salad.

Lucky you
We love this recipe from Jamie Oliver prawns rocket and sundried toms with spag

I like to snip a handfull into rice
(1 cup rice, 2 cups water, tomatoes, salt, bring to boil, take off heat and leave for 15-20 min until all water is absorbed)

or blitz some with oil and basil for red pesto.
snip some onto a pizza as topping.
or cover them witha little hot water so they soften up then add olive oil and herbs and use as sanwich topper.

oooh the pesto suggestion is up my street and something I hadn't thought of.

I'm not a massive fan of the taste of sun dried tomatoes in their whole state usually, so would be looking at recipes that involved chopping them up into something else but seems a shame to waste them in a bolognese.

The oils suggestion would have been a good one if I didn't already have a variety of flavoured oils that don't get used thanks to other relatives.

A couple of sundried tomatoes really jazz up a sandwich, I find.

have a look at delia's chicken basque on her website
or stir them into a goat's cheese risotto at the start of the cooking process
if you can add them at the early stages of something that will cook for a while, then the taste and texture become a little less "unique"