In today’s Seasonal Pantry, which you can read here, I talk about two methods of preserving tomatoes, freezing oven-roasted tomatoes and canning. Do you have a method you prefer, one you’ve been using for year? If so, please take a minute to share them in the comments section of this post.

Preserved tomatoes are a wonderful thing to have on hand in the winter and fall. Out-of-season tomatoes from the southern hemisphere are no substitute for a properly grown and ripened tomato from your own backyard or from your local farmers market.

One aside: If you peel your tomatoes by plunging them into a pot of boiling water, I would love to change your ways. This method dilutes a tomato’s flavor and cooks the outer 1/8-inch of flesh. A much better technique is to spear the tomato by pushing the tines of a fork through its stem end. Then hold the tomato over a high flame or hot burner, rotating it as the skins pops. It doesn’t even need to scorch. Each tomato takes a few seconds and by the time you are done with the last one the first one is ready to have its skins pull off. It’s fast, easy and intensifies rather than dilutes the flavor.