A whole lot of tomatoes

About a month ago, I made an early morning rash decision.  I committed to finding something to do with all of these.

In case you cannot tell, that is a 25 lb case of roma tomatoes plus an additional 3 lbs of romas that came in my weekly CSA share that week.

What was I going to do with 28 lbs of romas in the short time before they spoiled in my kitchen??

I decided to follow this recipe from Food in Jars which makes the process sound so easy.   I am a novice canner for sure so I went into this challenge somewhat blind and relatively unequipped with the appropriate gear.  My "canning pot" (aka my spaghetti pot) only held 3-4 pint jars at a time.  Since the sterilization step required 85 minutes in boiling and each jar only held about 5 peeled romas, this was going to take awhile.

But less than a week later, I had magically turned my box into these.  I can't remember exactly how many pint jars I ended up with (15-20, I think). I canned the romas as whole unpeeled tomatoes.  It was actually pretty easy, albiet time consuming.

My coworker Michelle also purchased her own 25 lbs of roma joy and she told me about another great recipe for romas - slow-roasted/oven-dried tomatoes.  In this case, all you do is cut them in half, brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Then you roast them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet for 8-12 hrs at 250°F.  The length of time depends on your preference and how dried/chewy you want them.  Michelle opted to do it overnight while she slept.  I did it on a Sunday during the day so I could check their progress. These slow roasted beauties are amazing as is and we ate them right out of the fridge, but when you turn them into pesto, they become divine!

Slow-roasted tomato pesto
Adapted from A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg

3 c. slow-roasted/oven dried tomatoes (Molly says this is about 36 halves)
1/2 c. olive oil
1 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and trimmed
2 c. packed basil leaves
1/2. c. parm. cheese

Using a food processor, blend the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and garlic until the garlic is finely chopped.  Add the basil leaves and continue until smooth.  Add the tomatoes and then the cheese.  Adjust seasonings to your taste.  At this point, you will have a thick paste that can spread on bread or crackers with cheese and is amazing.  We wanted to have it over pasta, so following Molly's recs, I thinned it out with some pasta water and additional olive oil.  YUMMY!