Freezing tomatoes

[Susan W]

This may have been covered, sorry if repeat, but then may be pertinent for many!

I have frozen tomatoes whole. Just cut out green stem core area, any bad spots, put in baggies in freezer. When soup time, just pull what you need out, hold under tap water, skin slips off, put tomato in stew pot.

Now, have any of you cooked some down in a pot, then freeze in containers? I was thinking this might cook out some of the excess liquid, and would be good for spagetti sauce later.

[KeyWee]

Do a google search for "Fresh Tomato Sauce Sicilian". It is an old recipe from the Frugal Gourmet that I have used for years. It freezes well and then you will have the basis for spaghetti, lasagna, etc. It sure has come in handy this year ~ we have tomatoes and more tomatoes coming out of our ears!!

[Susan W]

A follow up here on freezing tomatoes. I was given a bunch of bruised tomatoes by a fellow vendor at the farmers market. They aren't anything special as far as variety. I did use a number of them to make a spaghetti sauce. Cut out bad spots, sometimes 1/2, core, pealed, cut into quarters, more or less. I cooked them down awhile then added the other ingredients (browned ground beef, etc) and some hunts type canned tom sauce and paste, fresh herbs, was really good! I did tackle the rest of the tomatoes, cooking some down a bit and freezing, and freezing raw with bad parts cut out. I may get a couple more chances at this now, and then be ready and more aggressive next season!

I do like to put the tomatoes back without other ingredients and then they are ready for soup or spaghetti. The soup is usually beef, barley, tomato and whatever else.