I have a ton of tomatoes, what can I make with them?

Has anyone ever made their own tomatoe sauce?

I have had a ton of tomatoes too in the last week but the supply is tapering off. I make my own spaghetti sauce and usually make enough for the whole year at one time to freeze. I start out by blanching the tomatoes to remove the skin. Put them in very hot water for just 1-2 minutes, take out and the skin just peels right off. Usually I stick bags of tomatoes like this in the freezer or you can just start making your sauce right away.

I'm not a 'spaghetti sauce recipe' kind of gal. The first time I did it I looked up several recipes on line so I had a general idea of what to do. I just add a bit of each spice I like and cook the tomatoes down for a couple of hours. I use my stick blender then to blend it all up - taste and add more of whatever sounds good. I then freeze it in small chunks so that I can take just a bit out at a time if I want. I have friends that make salsa with their big crop of tomatoes - also yummy. Hope you get lots more tomatoes!!

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than the valuables you can't afford.

Oh, I'm so jealous. Mine are all still green, but there are a lot of them so I'm getting ready.

We use romas for sauce, but you can use any kind really. Fill your kitchen sink up with washed tomatoes. Boil a big pot of water and dump it on them and let them soak for a couple minutes. The skins should peel off easy. Peel them all and squeese out the juice. Use this to make your sauce. If you want it smooth you can run it through the food processor. I add garlic saute'd in olive oil, basil. You can stop there and do a quick sauce in a small pan or make a big batch of sauce and add meatballs or italian sausage.

other ideas:
chili
goulash
lasagna
salsa
toasted tomatoe sandwitches
scoop out tomatoes and stuff w/ you name it hot or cold
toast garlic french bread slices/ top w/ chopped tomatoes, basil
sliced tomatoes & mozarella on pizza crust
add some to soups
stewed tomatoes (cook w/ celery and onion) and bake on fish

I'll add more if I think of them.

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i love tomatoes! and i do them well hahaha...i like to grow the cherry variety--i have 4 varities of cherry tom going now--1 produces red toms the size of peas! another is a golden yellow cherry--very sweet! i also have a red pear and supersweet 100 cherry. i have a regular tom too, "champion"--it's good for slicing and eating like an apple my dogs like them, too!

i like to make this salad: cherry tomatoes sliced in half, sliced zucchinni or cucumbers, and sliced purple onions. marinate in basalmic vinegar. strain and serve. ummm...also very pretty!

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If you're going to freeze & you're not sure what you will be using them for you can just wash them & freeze them with the skin on (in zip lock bags). I used to blanch mine, & they would get very mushy after freezing. Then I read up about blanching & found out that you really need to boil veggies for at least 3 minutes a pound to stop the enzime process anyway. So with tomatoes you are adding a step that has no real benifit. When you thaw the tomatoes the skin will slip right off after freezing, so it saves a lot of time & the tomatoes you end up with taste much fresher. HTH

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I didnot know that you could freeze them whole. I think I will do that wioth some of them. I am going to take a stab at spaghetti sauce this week end and I will probably make salsa too.

My parents are moving into a new house (for them) that is less than 10 mins from us and there are 5 tomato plants that are producing more than the 2 of them will ever eat! Lucky for us!!

Keep the ideas coming...

Thanks

I have never made sauce but I love cucumber tomato salad. I just cut them up to what ever size you want usually triangles for me... and then add a littl olive oil, vinagar, salt and pepper....yummmm

Mu dh doesn't really like vinager and he loves this.

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I made 2 batches of marinara sauce and we have been having them on sandwiches. I froze the marinara sauce. I am probably going to freeze some whole too.

Thanks~~Wendy