Versatile Tomato Paste

Let’s celebrate the end of tomato season for the next couple of weeks with Tomato Tuesday.

After a season of bushels and bushels of tomatoes harvested from the garden, it’s time to use up the last remaining with two of my favorite recipes. This week let’s make homemade tomato paste.

As long as you have the time, this recipe very simple. The flavor of freshly harvested tomatoes reduced down to a paste is amazing. Most of us think only of tomato paste as an ingredient in dishes like stews and pastas. This fresh tomato paste is great as a sauce base for stews and pastas. It’s also excellent as a condiment all on its own, for example with cheese on a crostini or as a special flavor boost on a cheese tray.

This weekend, spend the day and slow roast your end-of-summer tomato harvest and make this delicious and versatile paste.

Tomato Paste

2015-09-24 11:20:28

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Ingredients

1. 10 pounds of tomatoes, roughly chopped
2. 3 teaspoons salt
3. olive oil

Additional equipment

1. Food mill
2. Rimmed baking sheets

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil to a large pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until the tomatoes start to shed their skin and soften.
3. Let cool slightly and then pass the tomato mixture thru a food mill in batches. Discard the seeds and skins. Season the pulp mixture with the salt.
4. Divide the mixture between 2-3 rimmed baking sheets, depending on how much liquid pulp you have. Place in the oven and bake. Check the tomatoes every 20 minutes or so, rotate the pans and stir. After a few hours, you will be able to combine the mixture into just one pan.
5. You will cook for about 4-5 hours until the mixture is dry but glistening — it will look like a dark, red paste.

By Shaun Myrick

Shaun Myrick https://www.shaunmyrick.com/