Marcy, Just to clarify, it's not like you can never, ever can anything but totally plain tomatoes in a BWB. There are plenty of recipes tested and deemed quite safe for water-bath canning that include peppers, onions, basil, garlic, and all that good stuff! But because there are limits to the overall pH, and the density, of a food to be BWB-canned within modern safety tolerances, you need to measure the amounts. But you can make yummy Italian- or Mexican-style tomato sauces, salsas, etc., even roasted red pepper-and-tomato spread. The Ball Blue Book is a good investment (cheap, with recipes AND canning instructions). As for freezing those as-yet-unborn tomatoes, you can, as has been said, freeze them any way you like --- when the harvest is coming in fast and furious in September here, I often just fill freezer bags with 'em whole and shove 'em in the freezer (removing only the stems), to can when things cool down. They can be put whole into a pot and made into sauce, which I put through a food mill (you can just use a sieve) to take out the skins & seeds. OR you can pop off the skins with a quick dip in boiling water before you cook 'em (this is even easier to do when they've been frozen---take about 5 seconds in hot water to loosen skins; nonfrozen tomatoes you boil for 30 seconds, then plunge into cold water). The one thing is that if you want to make a sauce or other recipe that has CHUNKS of tomato --- like Ellie Topp's Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce, or tomato quarters --- you may want to do the chopping BEFORE you freeze the toms. When they are frozen they're too hard to chop easily and when they thaw they are pretty mushy. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! Z, who produces a pantry full of tomato-y products ever fall with only a BWB canner

I agree, I'd just use the tomatoes. Squishing them all up would result in a paste like texture, not the chunky salsa that I make. In fact, I'd probably just chop 'em up and not worry about the skins, or slip the skins from the frozen tomatoes and chop them up, maybe drain a little. You will probably get a thinner "sauce" instead of the thick and chunky salsa, but it would still be good. ruthie, you are right, I just added the sauce and paste for texture, I wanted that thick/chunky salsa, not what we call "taco sauce" here, which is more runny and has smaller chunks of the veggies, or no chunks at all. Annie

Some have posted in the past that they use frozen tomatoes to make it - just more soupy. Re-canning previously canned items isn't generally recommended. So the frozen ones would be 1st choice I think. Of course it is done - using previously canned things - just do so with care. If I didn't have frozen ones I think I'd use commercially caned ones. JMO Dave

OKAY, OKAY!!! I've read enough raves about Annie's Salsa since I've joined this forum. I guess I'm just going to have to break down and make some. I'm sure DH will be thrilled! The problem is, tomato season is winding down around here...mine weren't worth much of anything (long story) but the local produce stand will probably still have some of their flats of almost-too-ripes for cheap. And, we are in the middle of moving, so I don't know when I'll have time. So Annie, I have a question... Have you ever made your salsa from frozen tomatoes? I'm sure I could find the time to blanch and freeze a bunch (she says, hopefully) to save for making your salsa when it isn't so hectic around here.