Cooking principle: ripe or overripe tomatoes are peeled and, in a highly boiled (1-2 hours) form, are laid out in jars. The cooking time for tomato paste depends on the juiciness of the tomatoes.
How to cook tomato paste
Recipe in a saucepan with a juicer
Stage 1. The beginning of cooking. Put a saucepan (or several pots) on the stove, do not turn on the fire yet. Wash the tomatoes one by one, wipe dry, cut each in half and put the halves in a saucepan. Once the bottom of the pot is full, put it on medium heat and go back to processing the tomatoes until they run out. After boiling under the tomatoes, reduce the heat, remove the foam.
Stage 2. Chopping and separating the juice from the cake – after half an hour of cooking, pass the brew through a juicer. A thick and delicate paste requires the separation of seeds and skins, so a juicer works best: it simply won’t let them through, separating them in cake. If you want to deal with the preparation of the paste constantly, then it is best to buy a special rubbing machine or a manual press. Separating the skins and grains manually is too time consuming.
Stage 3. The main cooking – the first 1-2 hours, while the tomatoes have a liquid consistency, stir occasionally with a wooden spatula, and when the paste boils down 2-3 times and becomes dense, continuously, and it is better to do this with gloves, since the paste gives hot splashes.
Stage 4. We add salt and vinegar – not necessary, but for long storage in any conditions it is better to add. Focus here on the taste of the tomatoes themselves, sweet varieties may require more salt and for a balanced pasta taste. Standard proportions are 5 tablespoon of salt in a 1-liter saucepan of fresh tomato. Similarly with vinegar: for 1,5 liters of finished tomato paste, add 2-3 tablespoons of 6% vinegar 5 minutes before the end of cooking – for storage under room conditions.
Stage 5. Sterilization of jars and lids – for example, in the microwave or oven, bring the water in the jars to a boil, then drain the water.
Stage 6. Arrange the paste in jars, close-roll up, cool and put away for storage.
Delicious facts
Tomato paste is prepared for future use, since there are a lot of tomatoes during the season, and few or expensive in winter. In other words, they boil tomato paste to save money in the off-season. At the same time, just like ordinary tomatoes, tomato paste goes well in borscht, for pasta, as well as for preparing various sauces for hot dishes. Even if you just dilute tomato paste with water, you get tomato juice, no worse than store juice.
It is better to take small jars for tomato paste: even a small jar of 100 milliliters is enough to prepare 5 liters (large saucepan) of borscht or 2 glasses of juice. But after opening, it is recommended to store homemade tomato paste for a minimum, just a couple of days. Accordingly, large cans of tomato caviar should be prepared if you are a big tomato fan and are ready to wash down borscht with tomato juice, having cooked pasta and stew for dinner.
Absolutely any ripe tomatoes are suitable for pasta: juicy ones should be examined and darkened cut out. Dense greenish tomatoes should be cooked with salt for better storage. Cooking time for tomato paste – to the desired consistency, as a rule, this is the consistency that corresponds to the name: a dense paste that does not fall off, and even more so does not drain from the spoon.
For reference, you can measure vegetables: 10 kilograms of fresh tomatoes will make 1-1,5 liters of thick tomato paste.
It is possible to cook tomato paste without a juicer or a special press, but it is very time consuming: after half an hour of cooking, push tomato puree through a sieve. Put the cheesecloth in several layers and tie the puree, hang for several hours, boil for a couple of minutes and roll up.
If there is a juicer, then you can simmer the tomatoes in it for an hour, and only then pass through a sieve, boil for half an hour.
Store homemade tomato paste cooked without vinegar – in the refrigerator or freeze in ice bags. Just put the vinegar paste in a cool place.