Our adventures as newbie gardeners have been continuing and even though the tomato plants are on their way out, we've still been getting a crazy bumper crop of tomatoes. This weekend, as two bowl fulls threatened to spoil, I decided to do something about it in the form of frozen puree and slow roasted tomatoes.

Above are two of the three quarts of ready-to-go-into-the-freezer puree that will find a home in soups and stews, and maybe sauce, come fall and early winter. I had heard that I could just grate tomatoes and then freeze them, but I decided to take the quick way and toss batches into the food processor. I love the color variations from the different tomato plants, and I know these will be delicious in chili.

I've had slow roasted tomatoes a few times and have very fond memories of the rich, slightly sweet flavor. So I checked my How to Cook Everything iphone app and got to work. Here's the recipe:

2 lb tomatoes (I used 6-8 heirlooms)

1. Preheat the oven to 225 F.
2. Slice your tomatoes into big wedges and remove as many seeds as you can.
3. Set 2 wire racks on top of two rimmed baking sheets. Put the tomatoes on the racks, cut side down.
4. Put in the oven and forget about them for 2 hours. Rotate the baking sheets and continue to cook until desired doneness.
If you want to use them immediately, they're done when still soft but somewhat shriveled, 2 to 3 hours. If you want to keep them for a few days, they're done when shriveled and mostly dry, at elast 4 hours (wrap and refrigerate). If you want to keep them for weeks, they're done when dark, shriveled, and dry, 6 or more hours total (wra and refrigerate or store in a jar in the pantry, or freeze).

I baked mine for about 4 hours, then divided them into two jars, topped with olive oil and stuck in a few basil sprigs for a bit of extra flavor. I plan to use this as a no-cook pasta sauce later in the week.

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