Hey,peebee. Drying is not really a critical point in this technique. You can use a fresh sauce-type no problem. I've used non-sauce type but cooking time suffers. I'm still working on get the Piennola to hang as long as it should. My garden does not yield many perfect fruit due to bugs. Next year I will try a cooler stop to hang in too. The low temp oven does make an excellent sauce though. I do 4-6 hours @ 275° with herbs, whole garlic cloves and EVOO on halved fruit.
And pretty good eating straight out of the pan.