Tomatoes are a staple in gardens up and down the UK, and a single vine can deliver bowls of juicy produce faster than most families can eat them. They slip into salads, soups, sauces and sandwiches, yet the glut often ripens all at once, leaving gardeners frantically giving produce away or watching perfect fruit spoil on the worktop.
Luckily, there is one simple step to turn that midsummer surplus into a treat you can enjoy when the weather turns cold. The trick is to slow-roast the spare fruit now and freeze the result for later. That’s the advice from Stephanie Donaldson, the writer behind The Enduring Gardener blog, who has been coping with a bumper crop.
“Every few days I am slow-roasting the surplus in olive oil with herbs, garlic and seasoning, to freeze for winter eating,” she says. “Today’s glut is winter’s delight.”
Her method is straightforward. Pick the tomatoes you can’t eat fresh.
Slice them, place them on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, add thyme or rosemary plus salt, pepper and a clove of garlic.
Roast in a moderate oven until the edges char and the flesh caramelises.
When cool, push the softened pulp through a sieve to remove skins and seeds.
If the flavour still needs sharpening, simmer the purée for a few minutes to thicken, then pack into tubs and freeze.
Come December you have an instant base for pasta sauces, stews or pizza.
Before any roasting happens, make sure you pick at the right moment.
Garden-care specialists at Garden Health say the safest stage is the “breaker” point, which is when each tomato is roughly half green and half red.
They’ll finish ripening on a sunny windowsill without losing flavour.
Store them at about 12C if you want to pause ripening, or push it along at kitchen temperatures of 30C.
Garden Health adds that whole tomatoes can go straight into the freezer.
“They will keep for around six months and will only take an hour to defrost at room temperature,” the experts say.
Even the smallest cherry varieties need never go to waste.
