When tomatoes are abundant it's not unusual to find them for $1/kg in the Adelaide central market. We regularly buy a box whenever we can one for $10, they usually tip the scales at more than 10kg.
I bring them home and cook them up in my big stock pot with onions, garlic, chilli and herbs then we pack them in ziplock bags and stash them in the freezer. They work out cheaper than canned tomatoes (even at 50c/tin) and you can be sure that your tomatoes are Aussie with no added sugar or salt. Winning on so many levels.
If you grow them yourself then even better.
Cooking up tomatoes is a simple affair, the trickiest part is making sure that you don't put too many tomoatoes in the pot so that it overflows and makes a mess. You can whizz it or leave it chunky. I usually leave it as is and whizz it when I defrost it if needs be.
Pull a bag out of the freezer and defrost on the stove to have an instant, simple pasta sauce or blend it with some extra water and cream for a delicious soup.
Tomato Box Passata
Ingredients
10kg box of tomatoes, washed and green stalks removed
3 red onions
2 garlic bulbs
5-10 small red chillies (omit if you aren't keen on chilli)
Olive Oil
Freshly ground Salt & Pepper
about 5 stems of thyme (or whatever other herbs you can rustle up)
Method
Skin and roughly chop the onions and pop the garlic out of its skins.Heat about 2-3 Tbs olive oil in the base of a stock pot. Add your onions and garlic reduce heat to low.
As the onions start to cook quarter your tomatoes and throw them in the pot as you cut them.
Small hands are helpful for quartering tomatoes. Make sure that they have the right knife for the job and reinforce correct placement of little fingers relative to the knife.
Keep adding tomatoes until your pot is nearing full, as the juices release the pot may bubble over if it is too full but as the liquid starts to evaporate you will have space to add extra tomatoes. It is easier to be patient than clean the stove top!
Cut the stalk off your chillies, halve them length ways and add to the pot together with your bunch of thyme or other herbs. Cook until you are happy with the consistency.
Ideally you can now pop it into some sterilised bottles/jars or bags or containers for freezing. If you are storing in jars you can poke a stem of fresh basil or oregano into each jar before you tip in the sauce.
This is what I use to sauce my meatballs and anything else that calls for tinned tomatoes.
