It happens every year you plant your tomato plants, maybe putting in a few extras, just in case. Or perhaps you notice a few new varieties at the garden center and decide to give them a try. Summer rolls along, and everything’s going well in the garden, until you go outside one day and realize that ALL of your tomatoes are ripe, RIGHT NOW.
At first, it’s exciting, because what’s better than fresh ripe tomatoes, straight off the plant? Not much, really. It’s delicious for a while: tomato sandwiches, Caprese salad, bruschetta, grilled tomatoes, fresh tomatoes on pasta, homemade pasta sauce, homemade tomato soup, stuffed tomatoes, and all the salad combinations you can think of. Who doesn’t love a good BLT every day? Ok, maybe after a few weeks you’d like to eat something besides tomatoes, just for one meal.
So, what do you do with all the tomatoes you’re harvesting? It’s painful to watch them rot when you put so much work into growing them and keeping the plants healthy. Don’t worry, all the gardeners who have been dealing with too-many-tomatoes-all-at-once for many years have got your back. There are endless ways to preserve your abundant tomato harvest so you can enjoy it all year long.
Here are just a few of our favorite ways to preserve tomatoes:
Freezing Tomatoes
This is hands-down the simplest way of preserving tomatoes. If you’ve got freezer space, you can simply wash your tomatoes, chuck them in a bag or container, and put them in the freezer. If you prefer tomatoes for sauces without the skins, there are two ways to go about it.
You can blanch them in boiling water for a minute, then dump them into cold ice water. The skins will remove quite easily, then just pop them into bags or containers and freeze them.
The other way to remove the skins is to cut off the stem end of the tomato, set them on trays, and freeze for 1-3 hours. Once they’re frozen, you can run them under cold water, and the skins will fall off. Then fill your containers and put them back in the freezer.
If you prefer your tomatoes for sauces in large chunks, diced, or pureed, just chop them up before putting them in the freezer. If you puree them, you may want to simmer the sauce for a few hours to reduce and thicken it up a bit before freezing.
Frozen tomatoes keep well for 6-7 months in the freezer.
Pasta Sauce
Making pasta sauce is a great way to preserve tomatoes, and it also makes for quick and easy meals on those nights when you don’t feel like cooking. There are hundreds of pasta sauce recipes on the internet, but the basics ingredients usually include:
- Olive Oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- Basil
- Oregano
- Lemon Juice (bottled, not freshly squeezed)
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar
Essentially you can play around with these ingredients or others if you like until you get a flavor that you really enjoy. It’s usually easiest to make this in the largest pot you have, and just keep adding tomatoes and the spices you like until it’s full. You may want to puree the tomatoes in a blender before adding them to your cooking pot, so they’re nice and smooth.
Once your sauce is made, let it simmer for a few hours. You can preserve tomato sauce either in jars, or you can freeze it.
Preserving in jars is quite a bit more complicated than freezing. Canned foods require an appropriately acidic environment for safe canning, that’s why you add the store-bought lemon juice, for consistent pH levels. But, canning also requires you to seal the tomatoes with a boiling water bath, preferably in a pressure canner.
If you’ve got canning equipment, and you’ve done it before, then get at it. But if you’ve never canned in jars before, you may want to help and learn from an experienced canner before trying it at home on your own.
Tomato Soup
Is there a more comforting meal on a chilly day than tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches? Tomato soup is so easy to make, you’ll never want to eat the tinned kinds again. All you need for tomato soup is tomatoes, soup stock (chicken, beef, veggie, whatever you have), an onion, butter, and some spices. If you’ve also got lots of peppers, consider roasting a few and adding them to your soup as well.
Add butter and onions to a pot, and then add in your tomatoes (you may want to puree them first in a blender). Stir in enough soup stock to create a soup-like consistency, and then add in a few of your favorite spices, basil is an excellent addition, and salt and pepper to taste.
Bring your soup to a boil, and then simmer on low for up to an hour. Use an immersion blender or your regular blender to puree everything for perfect tomato soup.
You should probably eat some before you preserve it, just to make sure it’s good, right?
Similar to the pasta sauce above, you can also preserve tomato soup in jars, but you’ll have to add lemon juice again, and make sure you can them safely, to prevent botulism. Freezing is definitely the easiest and safest method for preserving your tomatoes. If you do decide to give canning in jars a try, make sure you use a specific recipe for canning, and follow the instructions exactly, to be sure your food is safe.
If these preserving methods have you curious about other creative way to use your tomatoes, spend a little time on Pinterest! There are a million fun and delicious ideas out there for preserving tomatoes, from pizza-friendly sundried tomatoes to delicious tomato jam for those juicy summer burgers.