It depends on whether you want to pressure can or use the boiling water bath for canning. If you add onions, peppers, garlic, etc to make a spaghetti sauce you need to pressure can. If just tomatoes, add some white vinegar or citric acid to increase acidity and you can use boiling water bath, which in my estimation is simpler and leaves the tomatoes with more flavor.

I normally cook the whole tomatoes down a bit and then can them. To get rid of the skins I run it through a blender after I open the jar before using. That's canning tomatoes for people who hate to peel tomatoes!

Don't know anything about drying, but congrats on the great (soon) harvest!

LOL -- or did you already know all of that and just really wanted a recipe? I don't come on here super regularly, so I don't know the regulars from the beginners :)

Susan - elisa is right that it depends on how you can, what experience you have with canning. Do you have any of the approved home canning books, the Ball Blue Book etc.? If so then you'll find approved spaghetti sauces in them. If not then NCHFP is the online source to use. You can't safely can just ANY recipe.

NCHFP - Spaghetti Sauce without meat

There is also one with meat and instructions for various other sauces and juices too.

As for dehydrating, since paste types aren't noted for their taste, dehydrating them works well as it intensifies what little flavor they do have. Use the search to pull up the 'brokenbar' discussions here all about how to flavor them with various pre-soaks and dehydrate them. Dried tomatoes can be used, once rehydrated, any way fresh tomatoes can be used.

NCHFP also has all the instructions for dehydrating them. http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry.html

Hope this helps.

Dave

Susan, I've dried San Marzanos with good results...in fact, I'm just about to runout of my stash, so I envy your soon-to-come bumper crop.

Here is the instructions from brokenbar I referred to above.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1960868/sun-dried-tomatoes?n=52

Thank you all for your help. I have done some canning (not a lot) and I do own the Blue Ball Bible (I mean BOOK of Caning!) These forums are a new discovery for me and I'm really enjoying them and am learning a lot. Thanks Dave for the tip on the search bar. Sounds slightly retarded but I hadn't figured out yet that you can search commentors and obtain all of their posts. I have noticed a lot of regulars on here. Nice!

So do you want to do BWB or pressure canning Susan?

Dave

I have both. Right now I'm leaning towards just canning the tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce or whatever later. More versatility and to tell you the truth, I've been doing so much preserving of my garden lately, I'm feeling a little burned out! If I could spread some of this cooking, etc. to winter when it's cold and I'm stuck inside, that would be great. As we speak, I'm cooking a freezing a bunch of beets from my garden! Don't want to waste anything.

You know you can always freeze them now and can them later.

Dave

Here's an interesting idea: http://foodinjars.com/2010/09/slow-oven-roasted-roma-tomatoes/. I haven't tried it but it looks really good.

No I guess I didn't know that Dave. They wouldn't be too mushy and watery? Just leave the skins on for now?

Hey thanks for that link to the oven roasted romas. I'm definitely going to try that with some of them. They look DELICIOUS!

Susan, here is how I freeze tomatoes: 1. Pick 2. Rinse 3. Pat dry 4. Stick in a bag 5. Stick in the freezer. Then, to make sauce later: 1. Take out of bag 2. Put into pot and cook down. 3. Add to other ingredients. LOL -- it you want easy ways to work with tomatoes, I'm your source. I've read all those recipes that say to remove skins and seeds, etc. I'm Italian and lived for a while with my farming relatives in Italy, and believe me there was none of that extra work when making tomato sauce. (Of course we didn't have a freezer, so it was all done in the late summer.) No one minded tomato skins in the sauce, but again, even after freezing if you want to do away with the skins just run the cooked down tomatoes through the blender.

<No I guess I didn't know that Dave. They wouldn't be too mushy and watery? Just leave the skins on for now?>

Sorry just assumed as there are many discussions here about doing it. Fairly common practice to avoid having to do it all in the heat of the summer or as a way to store up enough to can a big batch all at one time. Many use it as the technique for peeling rather than the dip in boiling/ice water method because when they thaw the skins slip right off them.

If you want them all ready to go when thawed then just core them before freezing them then when thawed slip off the skins and fill the jars.

Dave

Thanks for the great info Dave.