For the past couple of years we've had a glut of tomatoes from the allotment garden. We store most of them by cooking them to a fairly dense mass (mess?) and then freezing them in blocks. These make a superb substitute for tinned tomatoes or tomato puree.
We also like to preserve some in jars with olive oil and garlic. These are great for giving a big flavour boost to soups and stews or can be spread on toast for a quick snack.
We halve the tomatoes and put them onto roasting trays. Sprinkle with: chopped garlic, salt and olive oil then roast in a low oven until they are starting to dry out. Pack as tightly as you like in to sterilized jars and cover with a little olive oil. As can be seen in the picture the tomatoes in the jars on the right were cooked until they started to caramelize and have a more chewy texture. The ones on the left are more squishy and don't have the burnt look.
The tomatoes are then pasteurized by submerging the jars in very gently boiling (or just below, 80 degrees minimum) water for 40 minutes. These should keep well until the bottles are opened when they need to be refrigerated and consumed within a week.
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