I know this isn't a cooking site but we are entering the peak season for tomatoes and I've found you can only can so many. So for those who don't have a garden, a canning process or are just tired of the work try this for the next month or so. Roast your tomatoes! I'm not a real fan of tomatoes, just a sissy I guess, but I love a good tomato sauce in January and only real tomatoes deliver that. I'm blessed to have gardeners for friends and when they have high yields I'm the recipient of their precious veggies. I've started roasting and freezing the little buggers and it works out really well. Oven needs to be at 450 degrees, use a bake sheet with a rim, and slice the tomatoes in half, sliced side up. If you are doing different varieties at the same time, like romas and big boys, cut them all about the same size, makes it much easier. Drizzle with a good olive oil and sprinkle Holy Salt over them lightly, vegetables always like salt, they especially blossom with Sacred Salt. Then I use fresh basil and oregano, if the grasshoppers haven't eaten it all,( I'm sure dried would work just as well but it's my compensation for not having a real garden) rough chop and sprinkle over the open side of the tomatoes. Roast until it smells really good, cool them and scrape the goo (that's a technical term) and all into freezer zip locks. In the cold months you will love the little effort you extended, guaranteed.
Hey, that sounds great!!! I don't can so this is an excellent alternative for me! I have done this with green chiles and even bell peppers in the past (quite an odd thing to do when you live in northern Illinois, I might add). Question, do you remove the skins or leave them in the goo? I know that the southwesterners often remove the skins when they roast tomatos like they do when they roast chiles. With the chiles I wait until I thaw them to remove the skin, it comes off much easier then, especially when roasted in an oven instead of a hot charcoal spit.
The skins kind of fall off and you can pick them out before storing in the freezer the zip lock. It's a great solution for the odd assortment of tomatoes I get or when I buy tomatoes at the farmer's market. I never have a great quantity but the little I buy I roast because I can't pass up the idea of having that fresh taste in the cold of winter.
