Preserving Roma TomatoesRoma tomatoes are the king of tomatoes and Preserving Roma Tomatoes is key when you want to make a sauce, ketchup or any Italian dish, aside from a salad. These tomatoes have few seeds, lots of dense meaty flesh and low amounts of moisture. The Roma tomato is a paste tomato. These plum shaped tomatoes are normally considered the best for use in sauces and don’t compete as well as their round brothers if used for sandwiches or salads.
Freezing tomatoes There are several methods of preserving Roma tomatoes. The quickest is freezing whole. If you’re busy and need to get them quickly into the freezer, which often happens when the season is at its height, this is the route you’ll want to take for preserving your tomatoes. You don’t have to peel them, all you do is core out the stem scar, the center where the stem attached, and put them on a cookie sheet. Of course, you should wash them first. Once they’ve frozen, place the tomatoes in a plastic zippered freezer bag and store until you need them. When Preserving Roma Tomatoes you need to remove the frozen Roma tomatoes and run the body of the tomato under hot water or dip it into a bowl of hot water for a minute. You should be able to slide the skins off easily once this is done. Throw the tomato in the pan and use it as you would fresh for cooking. Of course, frozen Roma’s don’t fare well for use in salads. You can also make juice, stewed tomatoes or sauce and use the freezer method to preserve you labors. Sun Drying and Conventional Drying If you live in certain dry parts of California, you have the perfect temperature and humidity for sun-drying tomatoes. The humidity has to be low to create adequate drying conditions and the temperature should be between 90 and 170 degrees. If you dry the tomatoes in cooler weather, they dry too slowly and form mold. They harden like rocks if dried at higher temperatures. The perfect dried tomato bends easily, is not tacky or moist and feels leathery with a dark red color. When you use a dehydrator for drying your tomatoes, make certain you set the temperature as the optimal heat, between 135 and 140 degrees. If you sun dry, don’t lay the tomatoes on galvanized screen since the acid reacts with the screen. Slice the tomatoes for drying ¼ inch thick and place them on the rack or screen about ½ inch to an inch apart. If you sun dry, lay cheese cloth over the top of the tomatoes. Canning tomatoes Canning the Roma tomato is the traditional method used for this preserving roma tomatoes. A sauce or stewed tomatoes are normally made and then placed in a water bath. For the proper destruction of molds and bacteria use a pressure canner or water bath for your tomatoes. Some people use open kettle but studies show that this is not a safe canning method. Fill a large canner high enough to submerge several canning jars. Make your sauce or tomato product and put it into sterilized jars. Run a knife along the side to remove any air bubbles and wipe around the rim. While your sauce or tomato product is hot, tighten the lids on the jar and place it in the water. You can use any type of large pan for this process. Make sure the water covers the jars and there’s plenty of room for circulation. Complete the processing time that varies with the way you process the tomatoes. Cold packed tomatoes require longer time and raw tomatoes, skinned of course, require the most time plus addition of an acidic product like commercial lemon juice. Normally the amount used for fresh packed tomatoes is 2 Tbsp per pint.
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