Thread: Tomato Pastes
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Old February 4, 2006   #2
Mischka
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Garden Tomato Paste

I make this every year with my surplus of plum tomatoes - you need to spend a few hours close to the stove, but it's worth it! Very handy to have in small amounts in the freezer.

7 lbs meaty tomatoes, such as plum
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 whole cloves
8 peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, chopped


3 hours 30 minutes 30 mins prep


1. Wash tomatoes and remove cores; coarsely chop- no need to peel.
2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine tomatoes with remaining ingredients.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, about 25-30 minutes or until all ingredients are soft.
4. Press through a foodmill (preferable) or sieve.
5. Return to a clean heavy saucepan and cook over very low heat for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally, until very thick.
6. May take a bit longer.
7. Cool and pack into ice cube trays.
8. Freeze and transfer to freezer bags.



Tomato Paste Recipe #2

8 quarts peeled, chopped and cored tomatoes (about 4 dozen large ones)
1 1/2 cups chopped sweet red peppers (about 3)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon salt
1 clove garlic, optional

Combine first four ingredients and cook slowly one hour. Press through a fine sieve. Add garlic if desired. Continue cooking slowly until thick enough to round up on a spoon, about 2 1/2 hours. Stir frequently to prevent sticking.

Remove garlic and while still hot, pour into hot Ball jars, leaving ¼ inch head space. Adjust caps.

Process 1/2 pints 45 minutes in boiling water bath. Makes 9 one half pints.



Tomato Paste Recipe #3

4 dozen large tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Peel, core and chop tomatoes. Measure; you should have 8 quarts. Add salt. Place in large pot and simmer over low heat for about 1 hour. Stir often to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and press through a fine sieve or put through food mill. Return to kettle and continue to cook very slowly until paste holds its shape on a spoon — about 2 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

Spoon into clean, hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace; seal. Process in boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Yields about 8 half pints.



Tomato Paste Recipe #4

Basically tomato paste are tomatoes that have been reduced, reduced again, and then reduced some more! It's ideal to make on a cold day over the gentle heat of a coal range.

* 24 large tomatoes
* 2 teaspoons salt or to taste
* olive oil

First score a cross on the bottom of each tomato using a sharp knife. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, then drop into ice cold water. After this the tomato peel should almost fall off. Pull the remaining peel off the tomatoes. Cut the core out and remove all the seeds. I keep the peelings for making homemade stock and the seeds for adding into stews etc. Chop the flesh and measure what you're left with which would normally be around 4 litres. Add ½ teaspoon of salt to each litre. Place the tomato and salt in a large pot and simmer over a low heat for around 1 hour, stiring often to prevent any catching and burning. Remove from the heat and press through a fine sieve or process through a food mill. Return the tomatoes to the pot and continue to cook very slowly until the paste holds its shape on a spoon, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent any sticking.

Spoon into hot sterilized jars, leaving 3cm (1 in) at the top. Slop on a little olive oil to cover and seal. Ensure the lids have vacuum sealed, or the paste will spoil. Alternatively you can fill and freeze ice cube trays and free flow cubes of paste in freezer bags for use later.



Microwave Tomato Paste

Tomato paste is something that gets used in our house quite a bit for pasta sauces. Normally I just buy a can of it at the grocery store and season the heck out of it to mask the canned taste. This recipe uses a carousel microwave (one with a turntable) and calls for four pounds of fresh tomatoes (not the bouncy, rubbery orangish ones from your local supermarket) and makes one cup of tomato paste.

First, you need to peel the tomatoes. Seed the tomatoes by squeezing the seeds out of them, then cut them in half and make sure that you got all the seeds out. You should seed them over a trash can, wearing an ex’s t-shirt or something else you don’t care about, because you will get splashed. It helps to mutter _”Brains….BRAINS….” while you’re doing this.

Then, cut the tomatoes in half, then cut the halves into quarters. One tomato should be cut into eight pieces. Once you’re done cutting the tomatoes up (or after you cut each one), put the pieces in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the tomatoes for ten minutes on high, stir them to break the pieces up a bit and keep the heating somewhat even, then nuke ‘em on high for ten more minutes. This is a good time to fix yourself a drink, peel more tomatoes, read a newspaper article… you get the idea.

When you’re done with the second microwaving, take the tomatoes out and run them through a Food Mill, blender or food processor. The cookbook calls for a food mill, but heck, how many people actually have one of those laying around the kitchen?

Once you’re done milling/processing/blending, transfer the tomatoes back into the microwave safe bowl and cook on high for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns. You’ll have at least a cup of quality, fresh tomato paste.



Tomato Paste (Conserva) Recipe

Conserva is essentially homemade tomato paste, though it's much better than the little can of tomato paste you'll find at the market. Conserva's flavor is deep and complex, a tomato reduced to its purest, richest, form. Make it now, while the season's still in swing!

As with many slow-cooked dishes, the technique is simple. Preheat the oven to 300°. Dice five pounds of tomatoes into medium-sized chunks. Make sure they taste good, but any subtle flavors will be lost on the way to conserva, so don't worry about buying heirloom, etc. varieties. An affordable, ripe basic tomato works well.

You'll need a big, shallow sauté pan. Pour a little olive oil into the pan, and bring it up to a medium heat. Boil the tomatoes, with a pinch of salt, for about two minutes.

Pour everything into a food mill outfitted with the smallest disc and set over a big bowl (you may need to do this in batches). Process the tomatoes through the food mill. Pour the contents of the bowl into a "large" jelly roll pan (a half sheet pan, for those who think in restaurant terms). For our pan, the tomato pulp and liquid came perilously close to brimming over.

Carefully, put the pan in the oven. Cook for four to five hours, stirring the mixture every hour, until the paste is dry. A dough scraper makes this fairly easy. You'll notice the mixture get thicker and thicker.

Now choose: Do as Bertolli suggests and cook at 250° for another two and a half hours, only to find a blackened, unusable mess on the jelly roll pan, or remove the paste from the oven as I did on my second attempt.

Let the conserva cool to room temperature and scoop it into a jar. My yield was on the order of one-half cup. That's right: five pounds of tomatoes reduced to one-half cup. Smooth the conserva surface, and top off with one-half inch of olive oil. Bertolli says you can keep it at room temperature indefinitely, but I put mine in the refrigerator and pulled it out a few hours before I used it.



(Recipes gathered from various internet sources)
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Mischka


One last word of farewell, Dear Master and Mistress.


Whenever you visit my grave,

say to yourselves with regret

but also with happiness in your hearts

at the remembrance of my long happy life with you:


"Here lies one who loved us and whom we loved."


No matter how deep my sleep I shall hear you,

and not all the power of death

can keep my spirit

from wagging a grateful tail.
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