All too frequently during our peak tomato production months, we return home from market with more tomatoes than we can eat or even give away. Our choice for handling this abundance depends on how much time we have and, often, the type of tomato we have. There are several preparations that lend themselves well to various types of tomatoes.

When time is fairly limited and we just need to get tomatoes off the counter (and the washer, dryer, laundry room counter, etc.) dehydration works well. This lends itself to most types of tomatoes, but be prepared for mindless tediousness if you are cutting cherry tomatoes in half. Years ago we bought an inexpensive American Harvest brand dehydrator along with the extra racks to total eight racks. We can get roughly 15 to 18 pounds of tomatoes on the dehydrator and the return will be right at one pound of dehydrated tomatoes but you can sell them for $24 a pound.

Cut slicing tomatoes about 3/8” thick; large paste tomatoes can be cut in thirds lengthwise; small plum tomatoes can be cut in half; as can cherry tomatoes. Paste-type tomatoes that are less juicy will dry in 18 to 24 hours at 135ºF. The juicier tomatoes will require up to two days. I like to dry them to an almost crunchy state. If you live in a humid area they will absorb moisture even stored in plastic bags. In fact, for long-term storage I keep them in the refrigerator or freezer and suggest that our customers do the same.

After dehydrating, we put 2 ounces of tomatoes in a plastic sandwich bag and sell them for $3 – and they always sell. We offer a recipe for a dried tomato pesto that our customers like. Beware of dehydrating yellow or other unusual colored tomatoes, customers are very wary of them even though the flavor is quite good. I still have a lot of dehydrated Sun Gold cherry tomatoes because they “just don’t look right”.

Another quick preparation option is a simple soup, recipe below. For this soup I would only use slicing tomatoes. The skins on paste tomatoes are too thick and roll up into unpleasant shards when cooked.

Quick Tomato Soup
From Bear Creek Farms

5 pounds tomatoes, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water

Place all in a large pan, bring to boil, and cook covered 3 to 4 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you prefer, the soup can be blended in a blender or with an immersion blender. It may also be mixed with half and half for a creamed soup. Yield – 2 1/2 quarts

After cooling, the soup can be frozen in 2 or 4-cup containers. I save these for fall or winter sales and sell them in the frozen state for $4 when customers are thrilled to have a “fresh tomato” flavored soup. The recipe may easily be increased proportionally.

With a little more time to invest we will make a roasted tomato/garlic sauce that a lot of our “lo-carb” customers buy to server over spaghetti squash for a “pasta” dinner. For this recipe I prefer paste tomatoes but slicing tomatoes will also work. I like this recipe because it can be done in stages. The roasted tomatoes can be cooled and refrigerated for finishing later.

Roasted Tomato/Garlic Sauce
Vegetable Heaven by Mollie Katzen

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes (not too ripe)
1 or 2 garlic bulbs
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (or to taste)
Black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375º. Line a baking tray with foil, and brush with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Cut tomatoes in half, removing stem end, and place cut side up on the baking sheet. Slice and discard the tips from the garlic bulbs and stand the bulbs on their bases on the tray. Drizzle the tomatoes with remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and place the tray in the oven.

After 30 minutes, remove tray from oven and turn tomatoes over. Carefully pour off and save the juices. This will enable them to acquire a deeper roasted flavor. Return tray to oven and bake for 30 minutes longer.
Cool to room temperature, pull off and discard the tomato skins, and place the tomatoes in a food processor. Break the garlic bulbs up into cloves and squeeze the pulp from each clove into the food processor. Add reserved tomato juices, and puree everything together until smooth.
Transfer to a bowl, and season to taste with salt, vinegar, and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until use. Yield about 3 cups.

We freeze this sauce in 2-cup containers and sell it still frozen at market for $5.
If the tomatoes will hold for a few more days and the next market day is likely to be hot we like to make Gazpacho which sells very well on a hot Saturday but will sit, undesired, on cooler days. If you really have tons of tomatoes you may also juice them for the liquid. Otherwise we like to use Knudsen’s Very Veggie Juice. Once after an extremely rainy Saturday I came back from market with about 15 or 18 pints of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and, in desperation, I juiced them for Gazpacho. The flavor and color were superb.
When making Gazpacho I like to chop the tomatoes by hand but will chop peppers, onions and cucumbers in the food processor. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to make enough for ten 16-ounce containers plus our dinner. We sell a 16-ounce container of Gazpacho for $5. Our favorite recipe is from the original Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen.

If I am feeling overwhelmed by tomatoes (and fruit flies) and time is really short we simply freeze the tomatoes whole for later use. Both paste and slicing tomatoes freeze well. Wash the tomatoes, dry them on a towel and freeze them in large freezer bags. These tomatoes can be removed from the freezer and roasted as in the sauce recipe above. Don’t bother to defrost them, just roast them whole. Sauce made from these frozen tomatoes will taste very fresh and will be welcomed at late fall or winter markets. Obviously, these aren’t the only options for extra tomato usage, merely the quickest we’ve come up with. Think about the ways you enjoy tomatoes and see if they can be adapted for a “ready-to-eat” item to sell at the market.