Another way to recover the texture after a freeze-thaw is to put in a spoonful of tomato paste and stir it up. It emulsifies the sauce quite nicely and perks up the flavor a bit too. I buy tomato sauce in tubes (like toothpaste), which lets me use it a spoonful at a time.

One thing — I’m surprised to see a California company refer to their tomatoes as “San Marzano.” In Italy, the name “San Marzano” denotes not only the tomato variety, but the place where they are grown (just outside the town of San Marzano).

It’s a protected name (”Denominazione di Origine Controllata “) the same way that “Champagne” is a protected name in France. Supposedly, what makes the San Marzano tomato so special is not just the variety, but the soil it is grown in (volcanic soil from Mount Vesuvius). The exact same tomatoes grown a kilometer away are not allowed to use the name “San Marzano” (although they can say they are “San Marzano style”).

There’s your tomato trivia for the day.

Phil: It -is- a lot of work, isn’t it? But we’re trying so hard to limit our menus (especially our fruits and veggies) to local produce. And our local tomatoes are so amazing, it’s hard to argue that it’s not worth putting them aside.

Sam: I don’t use a funnel for tomatoes; I just am very diligent about wiping the rims with a fresh paper towel every time. I do use the funnel for preserves and other sticky stuff, but with whole (or even halved) tomatoes, the funnel makes it really hard to do the pressing and air-removal.

On saturday I did about 20 jars of tomato chutney using the little weck jars with the rubber seal and two of that batch failed because my funnel is slightly too large to fit the smaller jar and its messy plus the rubber bands are more tricky to line up than the lids.

I love taking the rings off and finding the lids have stuck solid. Glad it worked out the second time for you.

I have to do another lot tonight cos I ran out of jars yesterday and still had half a pan of tomatoes left.

I better eat them through the winter now…