Like StinkyBurrito said, the basil (or whatever else floats your boat) is optional. It’s good both with and without. Let your own tastebuds be your guide. The soup is also good served cool with avocado cubes in it.
Make tomato wine.
Seriously, you have just enough to make 6 gallons. All you’ll need is about $50 worth of materials and then in about 6 months you’ll need a case of empty, clean wine bottles. I’ve made tomato wine (with some white raisins added for flavor). Check out some recipes online. It ain’t bad either.
The thing about making tomato wine is you can use the leftover pulp (what’s left after you crush or juice the fruit) to make salsa or sauce. Win win.
Last year I started doing this with my tomatoes, and I’ll never do it any other way.
Cut them in half, arrange them skin side up on broiler-proof pans, and broil them until the skins blacken. Remove all but one or two of the most blackened, brittle skins. Dump the tomatoes, blackened skin and juices into a blender and blend until they are a chunky puree. (Alternately, put them into a tall pitcher and use a stick blender.) The puree will be speckled with little flecks of black. Pour the puree into freezer ziploc bags and let them freeze stacked flat, one on on top of the other. Try to judge how much you will use for a typical recipe and freeze them in suitable quantities.
The broiling gives them a delectable roasty flavor which goes well in any recipe, and reduces their volume a little. Freezing the bags flat makes them much easier to store in the freezer.
(Bookmarking this thread until that time when my tomatoes ripen–I have dozens of good-sized Romas on a couple of plants, but they remain green and hard.)
Let’s have your marinara recipe, Ogre! I’m pretty new to this “grow your own produce” game, and can use all the help I can get! Last year I made a basic tomato sauce from my bounty and I must have done it wrong because, not only did it taste only average, it was a TON of work. Will definitely go the freezer route this year; thanks for all the advice. I do think it sounds easier to blanch and peel them in their frozen state and will do that–less handling of slippery, peeled tomatoes and less risk of cooking them during the blanch. freckafree’s suggestion to freeze them on a sheet pan, then bag them is a winner too.
Well, I decided to go with the soup because it was intriguingly simple, I have that cookbook and trust it, and it didn’t require me to peel anything. Figured we’d eat it tonight and freeze the rest. I then proceeded to screw up a whole batch of pepper jelly and therefore have my regular summer canning catastrophe. I was overdue.
How did it come out, Zsofia? We also had the soup for dinner last night, and I’m always amazed at how many tomatoes cook down into such a relatively small amount of soup.
Would you mind sharing your pepper jelly recipe? We have ton of peppers. Last year, everyone in the family got hot pepper vinegar for Christmas, but the jelly intrigues me…
Turned out great! (Even the boyfriend who was all “who makes tomato soup?” liked it. I froze most of it and added cream to last night’s. Needed more salt than I expected, though.
Pepper jelly is a traditional Christmas gift around here. You pour it over cream cheese, especially. The recipe is really easy:
One big bell pepper, really roughly chopped
At least one jalapeno or similar, seeded if you like, roughly chopped
6 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
4 oz pectin (Certo)
Green (or red) food coloring
Dump peppers in the food processor and dice. Bring peppers, sugar, and vinegar to a rolling boil. Skim foam if necessary, you don’t want it in your jars. Add pectin and a few drops of food coloring. Ladle into sterilized jars (makes 6 half pints, looks really nice in the diamond cut ones) leaving 1/4 inch head space and process for 10 minutes in hot water bath canner. Makes a very pretty emerald green thing.
Yesterday, though, for the first time ever three of them didn’t seal! Not usually a problem, but I guess we’ll be finding something else to do with pepper jelly in a hurry!
Sounds like fun! I’ve never canned before, but I think I’ll give this a whirl. Pepper jelly and cream cheese on Townhouse crackers is one of my guilty pleasures.
Thanks!
Oh - my recipe (scrawled on napkin, actually) says 4 ounces of Certo, but I use the 3 oz packages and it comes out fine. Also, if you do it my way there will be little pieces of peppers in the top half of the jar. I think it looks fine, but if you’re pickier, blend it more. I’ve never heard of anybody making pepper jelly with a jelly sock, but if you wanted it perfectly crystal clear that would of course be the wya to go - not sure about the flavor then, though.
ETA - if you’ve never done home canning, I suggest reading a recent book on it (the Ball Blue Book is classic) or the USDA’s recommendations, which are almost certainly available at your local ag extension’s website and are easily googleable. A lot of the things our grandmothers did could potentially kill you if you don’t know what you’re doing and the new guidelines are there to protect your safety. A lot of people do can hot jellies and preserves without a boiling water bath and it doesn’t kill them, but I stick to the guidelines and process everything - especially stuff I’m giving away!
You can bake them in the oven, and play paintball with them. I did that once, it was very entertaining.
- Wash them & let them COMPLETELY dry.
- Place on cookie sheet, making sure they are NOT touching.
- Place in freezer and freeze overnight.
- Take out and place in baggies (they are solid with peels on).
- Put baggies back in freezer, and you will have fresh vine-ripe 'maters for as long as they last.
- To use, just take out as many as you want, rinse or let them thaw and the peeling will come right off. Use as you wish.
Thus saith Mrs HSM. (She says she can make pecans last six years, but that’sanother thread…)
ENJOY
HSM
I have to raise a question regarding the advice to freeze the 'maters. To wit: Are you aware that freezing destroys the texture? The only feasible use after freezing is cooking down in a big pot, running through a food mill, and making tomato sauce. Whatever fresh taste there was is long gone.
If I am ignorant, this is your chance to fight it.
We usually make salsa with ours. Not fresh pico, but cooked salsa.
You can use them for just about anything you’d use canned tomatoes for. It’s like canning, but much much easier.
What do YOU do with ten pounds of tomatoes? Especially if you’ll have another ten pounds by the end of the week?
I’d get ten pounds of bacon, ten pounds of lettuce, ten pounds of bread, a huge jar of mayo, make myself 40 pounds of BLTs and eat myself to death.
Yes, I know that freezing destroys the texture, so you can no longer use them in salads. You use them in cooking, but you can still just peel and dice them: it’s not necessary to puree them.
I’ve tried that, and I can’t keep up, dammit!
Thanks for the warning,** Zsofia**. One of my great-aunts died after eating badly canned peaches, so I’ll definitely take the safety guidelines to heart.
Just set them down.
It will be the easiest 10 pounds you ever lose.
I cook with tomatoes,but don’t simply eat them. My wife loves them, so I asked her if she had any options re the 10lbot. So I was just passing along info - if it does not suit your needs, sorry. Probably with any food storage suggestions, YMMV. 
Oven dried tomatoes are delicious. Just slice them in half, place on a baking sheet, cover with a little bit of oil and set the oven to the lowest setting. Leave them there for a few hours.
My four year old calls the results tomato candy. Yum.