Now that Fall is almost here, you gardeners are probably sitting on a bumper crop of tomatoes. You have given them to the neighbors, taken boxes of them to work, and still they keep coming. You want to can some, but the peeling, sterilizing jars, and water bath, there just isn't enough time to do it all. I may have an easy solution for you.
The tomatoes here in Mexico have a tough skin and they cannot be peeled the conventional way by dipping them in hot water then in ice water. The skin just stays put. The cooks here have a method of their own to get around this problem. Pop them into boiling water until the skins split, then blitz them in the blender, skins and all. The skins just disappear in the puree. You can do the same thing.
Wash your tomatoes to make sure you have no dirt on them. Put a large pot of water on to boil. No salt needed. When the water is boiling, drop the tomatoes into the water and let them just hang out in there until their skins split. Remove them with some tongs and put them in a blender. No need to cut out the stem ends either. Do not add additional water.
At this point, you can also toss in some basil, thyme, garlic, salt, or anything you have from the garden. Puree until it is the consistency you like.
Pour the puree into freezer storage bags or containers and freeze. Make sure to label the puree if you have added herbs so it can be easily identified.
Use this any way you would usually use tomato puree.
You will do in a few minutes what it took you all day to do before.
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