Freezing tomatoes – pasta sauce style

Yay, we have a surplus of tomatoes! I thought I would try something different in terms of Tomato Storage this year – normally I cut out the core bit and freeze them whole, then defrost and cook in pasta sauces later in the year. This time I thought I would try to make a tomato stock – pre herbed and spiced, ready to defrost and throw in with mince and / or veges – cut back on the prep time I would normally do. Yep, lazy, but foreplanned lazy counts as smart, right?

So – here’s what I did, in case anyone else wants to give it a go. Word of warning I haven’t tried eating this yet, but I can’t see where there would be a problem (if there is one, later, I’ll let you know! With pictures )

First, assemble basic equipment. Knife, prewashed tomatoes, chopping board, blender/food processer.

Stuff what you may need.

Then, cut the white core out of the tomato. I do this by just cutting a circle around it, and hauling it out – the stringy centre bit comes with it. If you cook that thing, its all gritty and horrible.I have to give a shout out to my dad for teaching me heaps about cooking – he wasn’t a great example of a chef, but he was an awesome terrible warning. (Hi S! Love you!)

Getting to the core of the matter *groan*

After coring the tomatoes, slice and dice however appeals. Watch for fingers. Pop the tomato bits in the food processor. For spices I added some pepper, basil pesto, and chili seasoning. Just put in whatever you would normally flavour your pasta or bolognaise sauce with!

Hit that blender button. You know you want to. If you leave the lid off, take a photo and send it to me, ok? I love to laugh

GgggrrrrRRRUUNKKKKKK!!!

I only pressed ze button for about 20 seconds – I didn’t want it pureered, I wanted some lumps of tomato in my pasta. Yum.

Then, put it in freezer safe containers, label, freeze!

I am pleased with how these look - hope they taste good, too.

I am looking forward to trying these later. I normally buy tins of chopped tomatoes and use that as the base for my pasta sauces, am happy that this will save me money, but also save me buying a can! I recycle them all, but canning is quite an involved process – and even with recycling I feel a bit of an environmental doofus for buying tinned/canned food.

How do you deal with surplus food / veges?