There are so many fall preserving projects on the horizon–all the fall goodies: apples, pears, quinces, winter squash, jerusalem artichokes–but I still need to finish up summer! There are still tomatoes to be dealt with, and it’s grueling, but everybody knows it will be worthwhile in the winter. So, without further ado, this is what I’m doing to get those long-awaited tomatoes out of my kitchen! I’m sure I will be pining for them once again in the not too distant future.
Fermented Tomato Conserve – I have never tried this but as soon as I saw this I was completely intrigued. See this post also, which is slightly different, and uses a recipe from (obviously) Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. The author discusses how he used the excess liquid in a Bloody Mary. I am choosing to use this liquid for a soup stock, but I love the cocktail mix idea! I’m not sure I squeezed as much liquid out of my pulp as I could have. I started with 10 pounds of tomatoes, and ended up with 12 ounces of pulp to which I added 2 ounces of kosher salt. It is quite salty! The seeds and skins were tossed, and the liquid is now in the fridge waiting to be used up. How does one use this, you may ask? I see it as a tomato paste that can be added to soups, stews and sauces for a salty, umami jolt.
The easiest thing I do to tomatoes? Fill my crock pot with tomatoes–I even leave them whole, in the case of tiny plum tomatoes–and just put them on the 12 hour low mode. They will break down and release their water. Then, when cool, I puree them in my Vitamix. (This is how I fell in love with my Vitamix, processing tomatoes.) I return them to the crock pot to become ketchup or tomato paste. The very last of the tomatoes are in there right now because I just couldn’t bear to keep them on the counter any longer.
Some more ideas:
How about oven-dried tomatoes in oil? Tip of the hat to Sean Timberlake, new head honcho at the About.com’s preserving page, for bringing attention to this method from UC Davis.
Or this TOMATO sauce from Raisin & A Porpoise?
Is this really goodbye?
Julia Sforza 
Just bought some sauce tomatoes. So I had to make salsa. Vitamix the tomatoes, add corn, black beans, salt and peppers, chopped onions, tablespoons of vinegar, some sugar, salt and peppers.
There it is! So good.
Yum, Mom, sounds great!
You are always so inspiring and have the best ideas!
Aw, thanks Jill!! You just made my day!
Thanks for the shout out!
You are so welcome!!