ajs - I made the bruschetta in a jar recipe last year. Too vinegary for bruschetta. But we like it on pasta. I'll use up the 10 jars or so that I made. But I doubt I'll ever make it again. Besides - after I bought the wine and the wine vinegar, it ended up being pretty expensive! I slow roast tomatoes, and then freeze them. I usually use plum type tomatoes. Cut them in half, or cut the larger ones in thirds. Place them on parchment paper on rimmed baking trays. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then I put them in a 200 degree oven overnight. They shrink in size, but are still moist. They are definitely different than a dehydrated tomato. Next morning, I let them cool to room temperature and then put in a ziploc in the freezer. FWIW - a 20 lb box of tomatoes fills 4 rimmed baking trays, and once slow roasted they all fit in a gallon ziploc. I use them on pasta or pizza or brushchetta. Pretty much take them out of the freezer, chop them, throw them in a pan with a little garlic and olive oil. Them put on the pizza, the pasta, or on brushetta bread. The tomato flavor is really intense. They remind me a lot of the sundried tomatoes in olive oil that I buy at Trader Joes.

Jan and Dave, You both use the term "complex." What does that mean? Is it the same as "balance", which after googling some more, I have learned is not too much sweet or acid, as in wine. Or does complexity add something else? By the way, I found a free glimpse of a paper indicating that high acid and high sugar together do in fact correlate with high flavor. I also learned that the acid content declines once the tomato ripens past "breaker" stage, whatever that is. Maybe that explains why I don't like tomatoes after they have been sitting out for more than a day or so, unless they were green when they started. It would seem that you need to eat a tomato once it is ripe, because left out it loses acid, and in the fridge it loses sugar! The black tomatoes came up when I googled "complex tomato flavor," along with a few others I can add to the list. I should search the forum with that term. Black Cherry for example. BTW, I am looking for early tomatoes, and also for varieties that will live through the hot summer and start bearing again in fall. We have a long spring and a long fall. Thanks so much for the recommendations and comments on my list!

Aker's West Virginia Marianna's Peace Pruden's Purple Trust me, you'll probably never fully make up your mind (I don't), and there'll always be at least one or two varieties you'll wish you had planted after it's too late (me too). Pick out a few, try 'em and make notes/save seed for next year. Otherwise you'll go nuts, like all the rest of us. :-)

seeds saved from a purchased wonderlight tomato produced beefsteaks the year after with good flavor - continued growing and passed around seed - then all those variations happened, lol lucky me - mule hasn't let me live anything down and I have received a lot of scolding for not stabilizing before sending out ~ Tom