Tomato Paste: Super Easy With Fresh Tomatoes
To make tomato paste with fresh tomatoes, you will need just two ingredients – ripe tomatoes and salt. Tomato paste is what gives dishes that gorgeous rich colour and intense flavour.
Your tomato plants are in full cry and you have buckets of fresh tomatoes coming in almost every day. Besides drying them or sharing them with your neighbours and friends, there is an exceptionally good way of preserving tomatoes for those cold winter months – tomato paste.
Tomato paste from fresh tomatoes can be made in one of two ways. Either the tomatoes can be cooked down for hours on the stove, or they can be cooked on the stove initially and then finished off in the oven to create a thick, sticky paste.
There is a third method, but it’s only feasible if you live in a hot, dry climate. The tomatoes are started on the stove and then spread out onto trays to dry in the sun for a few days until they form a thick paste. The second method is what I use most often.
How to Make Tomato Paste With Fresh Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2.3kg (5 lb) ripe tomatoes, or about 23 roma tomatoes
- 1 tsp coarse salt
Choose the right tomatoes.
Any kind of tomato will do, but tomatoes with less juice, like roma, are the best for making tomato paste. Roma tomatoes are fleshy, but not too juicy, and don’t have too many seeds. Juicy tomatoes take longer to reduce down to a paste.
Only choose the ripest and best tomatoes from your vines and only make paste if they have been organically grown. This is because they will be condensed and any pesticides will likewise be concentrated.
Prepare the tomatoes.
Cut out the stems. Chop the tomatoes up roughly into quarters and run them through a blender in batches. Pour the purée into a large saucepan with the salt. It’s best if you use a glass or enamel-coated saucepan because of the acids in the tomatoes and the length of cooking.
Make the tomato purée.
Cook the tomatoes uncovered for about 30 minutes over a medium heat to help the excess moisture to escape. Stir regularly so that it doesn’t burn.
Lower the heat and continue cooking for another 40 minutes or until the mixture has started to thicken. Let it cool. Don’t forget to stir it while it’s cooking.
Pour the purée through a fine sieve. Use the back of a spoon to press the mixture through the sieve until only seeds and bits of skin are left behind.
Reduce further to make tomato paste.
As mentioned before, tomato paste can be made by baking in the oven or drying in the sun.
1. Baking in the oven.
Spread the mixture evenly over the bottom of an enamel-coated roasting pan or baking sheet. Put into a low preheated oven at 150°C (300°F) and allow it to reduce even further.
Stir every half hour to make sure that everything is evenly mixed. Scrape the sides and bottom well and mix it all in.
Once the purée has become quite thick, lower the oven temperature to 120°C (250°F) and continue baking for about another 2 to 3 hours until the paste is thick and deeply coloured. Stir regularly, scraping down the sides and bottom well.
2. Drying in the sun.
If you live in a hot, dry climate, then putting your tomato purée out into the sun to make a paste is also an option.
On a sunny day, spread the tomato purée in a thin, even layer on some baking sheets. Cover with light gauze or mosquito netting to keep the bugs off. Leave the trays out in the sun for 3 to 4 days until the paste is really thick.
The trays will have to be brought in at night to prevent any dew from collecting on the surface of the paste, or cover the trays with a tarpaulin.
Putting the paste into jars.
Spoon the paste into small sterilised jars, pressing down well after each spoonful to get as much air out as possible. Leave a good amount of headspace in each jar.
Use a skewer to release trapped air bubbles and tap the jar sharply on a wooden board to settle the paste.
When you are satisfied that there are no air pockets left, pour a layer of olive oil over the surface to cover the paste completely. Seal the jars with the lids.
The paste will keep for several months in the fridge, but if you want to keep it for longer, then you will have to process the jars of paste in a canner. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to do this.
Join in and sign up for the Newsletter to get all the goodies right in your inbox.
Tips: Only use a clean spoon when taking paste out of a jar. Make sure the spoon is dry, as water can encourage mould to grow on the paste. Always have a layer of olive oil covering the surface of the paste left in the jar.
©Kerry Biddle 2021, including photos, except as accredited.
Photo credit
Tomato paste bean dish – Image by ASSY from Pixabay
