I both canned and froze pasta sauce last year, and I much preferred the frozen sauce. You have much more control over what you can put into the sauce you plan to freeze, no issues with worrying about safety like canning. Digdirt (ie Dave) gave me this recipe 2 yrs ago when I was strictly freezing, and it's become my #1 recipe. 20 tomatoes, halved and seeded 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1 cup finely diced onion 2 teaspoons minced garlic 1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme 1 cup white wine Preheat oven to 325. In a large roasting pan, place tomato halves, cut side up. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs. Bake tomatoes for 2 hrs. Check tomatoes after 1 hr and turn down heat if they seem to be cooking to fast. Then turn oven to 400 and bake another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and process through a food mill. Discard skins. Put tomatoes in a large non-reactive pot and add white wine and bring to a boil, reduce to low head and cook to desired consistency. Freeze in containers. I also tried white wine instead of red wine, thinking red wine was more "Italian". But, the white wine gives a much better taste, in my opinion. Enjoy your tomatoes and post often. I have learned so much from the wealth of experience on this site!

Sure, you can freeze them. If you plan to use a food mill or strainer, then you can freeze them just as they are, with skins and cores (though you might want to halve or quarter them to be able to pack them more efficiently and take up less room in the freezer). OR you can peel them and core them, then freeze them, so when you defrost you only have to cook and mash. if you do this, toss them with a little lemon juice or Fruit Fresh before freezing to help them keep from browning. Cheers, Z

There are several ways to cook fresh, raw tomatoes down into a sauce that can be frozen. Here's how I do it: I wash, core and quarter the tomatoes (or cut smaller ones in half) and run them through my tomato press/strainer using the 'sauce' screen. That gives me what is essentially thin, watery tomato juice. Then I put it in a heavy stockpot and simmer it until the volume is reduced down by about 50%. That gives a fairly thick sauce. You can reduce the volume only by about 30-35% if you want a thinner sauce. I stir fairly often. How long it takes will vary depending on the size of the pot, how full it is and how watery your tomatoes were to begin with, but it is not unusual for me to simmer it for 6 to 8 hours with a normal big stockpot, or up to 10 hours if I am using my 21-quart canner as a stock pot for boiling down tomatoes. I am starting out with about 40-50 lbs. of tomatoes per batch though, and that plays a part in how long it takes to boil down. A smaller quantity of tomatoes will boil down a little more quickly. When it has reached the thickness I desire, I pull the pot off the burner and let it cool. Once the sauce has cooled, I ladle it into plastic freezer storage boxes, leaving 1/2" headspace. I label it "Tomato Sauce" plus the date and put it in the deep freeze. I use the Arrow brand Freezer Boxes sold on the canning aisle at Wal-Mart. Our Wal-Mart is always sold out of them at this time of year, but our Tractor Supply Store usually has them in stock all the time during canning season. If you do not have a tomato press/strainer, you can either puree your tomatoes in a food processor or you can chop the tomatoes into about 1" size pieces, cook them, and then strain out the seeds using a colander or strainer with fine mesh or small holes. Later on, you can make whatever you want...pasta sauce, soups, stews, etc. from your frozen sauce. Just thaw it and use it. If you want to can the tomato sauce in canning jars instead of putting the sauce in freezer boxes, you'll have to add an acidifying agent, usually lemon juice, for safety reasons. The recipe for canning tomato sauce can be found at the linked website. This recipe for canning tomato sauce can be used for making sauce to freeze, but you can skip adding the lemon juice since you're freezing instead of canning. If what you actually want is to go ahead and make full-fledged spaghetti sauce and then freeze it, there is a recipe for that in the Ball Blue Book that is separate from the standard canned spaghetti sauce recipe. That recipe might be at the Ball website (freshpreserving.com). Sammy, Reducing the tomato juice via simmering or boiling takes care of the issue of the sauce being too watery. It also intensifies the flavor. Mia, The most important thing about the Annie's Salsa recipe is to follow the directions exactly and make only the substitutions that are specifically stated as being allowed--such as substituting ReaLemon or ReaLime juice for some or all of the vinegar, or substituting some hotter pepper for some or all of the jalapenos, as long as the volume of peppers remains the same as what is stated in the recipe. There's a million threads about Annie's Salsa on the Harvest forum because the recipe has been around a while, and there have been some modifications done over the years, based on the advice of the ag extension service that worked with Annie to test the recipe for safety. While being creative and adding your own special touch to recipes when cooking is fun, you cannot employ that creativity in canning because any change you make that could affect density or pH of the product being canned could compromise its safety. That's why everyone on the Harvest forum lists the approved changes when the recipe is discussed--to ensure people don't make unapproved changes. Hope this helps, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving Tomatoes

I second that "Yep". When I was making yogurt all the time I could only find Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (which has more varieties of good bacteria in it than Dannon or other brands), two hours away, so I would place it in an ice cube tray in 1-tablespoon amounts. When I needed a new starter I would thaw enough cubes-of-yogurt in the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature before using it to innoculate the batch. I rarely make yogurt - I'm a kefir gal now. The kefir grains last forever and grow to make more so you never need a new starter. You plop the kefir grains in a quart canning jar with 2-3-cups of cold milk of choice in it - right from the refrigerator - and set it on the kitchen counter (out of direct sun), and in 12-24-hours you have kefir. The curd is similar to plain yogurt. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Dom's Kefir In-Site