Putting tomatoes without canning

My first wife's mother (serious Italian) simply cleaned the tomatoes and put into mason jars and filled with olive oil. The trick is to make sure the tomatoes are covered so the don't develop any bacteria. Bonus is you not only get fresh tomatoes year 'round, but also nice flavored olive oil.

You can freeze them whole, unpeeled. Just wash, core, put on a sheet pan, freeze solid, then put into freezer bags of the desired size. The skins slip off easily when they're thawed. They do take up more freezer space that way, though.

Personally, I prefer to chunk them up, skins and seeds and all, cook until soft, then pass them through a food mill to get rid of the fibrous stuff. It makes the most efficient use of my limited freezer space. I generally use the frozen tomatoes for sauce or soup, anyway, so they're pureed and ready to go once thawed.

You can dehydrate tomatoes. I have an Excalibur dehydrator, and I simply slice the tomatoes, dry them and store them in glass containers in my cupboard. They are wonderful ground up to put in soups to deepen the flavor. They are wonderful rehydrated for soups and salads. You can also cook them down and make tomato paste. https://food52.com/recipes/14681-homemade-tomato-paste You can make pasta sauce and freeze it.

I am in the same boat that you are. I am interested in canning, but I haven't purchased the supplies needed, so that will have to wait until next year. I am going to freeze tomatoes this year. You can peel or not peel, chop or freeze whole.

Jeffrey Zakarian peels his tomatoes with a knife. I may try that and avoid the boiling water method. I think I will buzz them in my food processor just to break them down a little. My freezer is apartment sized, so the tomatoes will then go into Ziploc bags. I already have 6 bags of ratatouille, lots of basil, thyme and rosemary in bags and it looks like I can fit 8 bags of tomatoes. I think I need to buy a little freezer. :0)