"Red Apples from the New World" 1593.
Here’s a bonus recipe from my kitchen vault. Lots of my friends ask me about making tomato paste, like the kind we used in last Tuesday’s recipe for ratatouille. You can use canned tomato paste, but I think that if you have the time, and you are going to all the effort to make homemade ratatouille, why not make your own tomato paste? It’s really easy, and once you learn to make it, you’ll find yourself making it all the time. Hmm… tomatoes are ripening now, maybe a Tomato Week should be in the works…
Woodgrows Tomato Paste, in easy steps
This is a recipe for home canned tomato paste. Like I said, you’re going to want this all the time, so there’s no harm in canning a few quarts of the good stuff to keep it on hand. If you are not an experienced canner, and you don’t want to be, just reduce the recipe to a size appropriate for your purposes. If you have always been interested in home canning, but have never tried it, this recipe makes a great place to start.
What You’ll Need
about 4 dozen large, ripe tomatoes of your favorite variety
1½ c. red bell peppers (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 T. salt
1 clove of garlic
about 9 half-pint mason jars
flats and bands for mason jars
1 water bath canner setup
1 fine sieve
Cut and Paste – Preparing Tomato Paste
- Peel, core, and chop the tomatoes. You can use a food processor for this, but I prefer just a good old chef’s knife. It is of the utmost importance to keep your knife sharp. (I’ll do a special on knife care a little later.)
- Combine all the ingredients into a large pot and cook slowly over low heat for about an hour.
- Remove from heat and press the mixture through the sieve.
- Crush and chop the garlic and add it to the sieved mixture.
- Put the mixture back onto the heat and cook it slowly over low heat for about 2 to 3 hours. When it is ready, it will have a familiar paste-like consistency. If it holds its shape on a tablespoon, it’s ready.
- Taste the paste. If you think it needs more salt, now is the time to add it.
Water Bath Canner Kit, including jar funnel, jar tongs, canner pot, and jar rack.
Tomato Life Masonic
If you’ve never canned at home before, there are some simple things to keep in mind. First of all, everything has to be clean: immaculately clean. The jars, the flats, the bands, the canner: everything. Cleanliness helps to cut down the risk of spoilage, which, of course, is the whole point of canning.
For detailed information about home canning, see my upcoming article entitled “Woodgrows Garden Canning Handbook.”
Apart from being clean, everything has to be hot, so be careful.
- Fill a large saucepan about one-quarter the way full with water, and bring to a simmer.
- Place your flats and bands into the water.
- While they are simmering away, put your water bath canner onto the stove, fill about one-quarter the way full with water, and start bringing it to a boil. Make sure that you put your jar rack into the canner, so that it will be appropriately sterile, too.
- Wash your mason jars in hot water and soap. Rinse them, and keep them submerged in a sink full of hot water.
- Pour the tomato paste into the hot jars, leaving about ¼” of head space.
- Use tongs to put a flat and band on each jar, and tighten them as much as possible using a dish towel to protect your hands.
- Once the jars have been capped, use jar tongs to place them into the water bath canner.
Jars being processed in water bath canner.
- Process the jars for 45 minutes with the canner lid closed.
- After the time has passed, remove the jars from the canner with the jar tongs, and place them on a towel on the countertop. Gently wipe away any residue that may have collected on the jars and lids, and give the bands a second tightening. These jars will be HOT, so use dish towels to handle them. You’ll know that they are sealed when you hear the distinctive “flink.” Sealing is important, if the jars don’t seal, your paste will ruin. Sometimes if can take up to 20 minutes for all of them to seal, so don’t panic if they don’t all “flink” at the same time.
Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of about nine cups of canned tomato paste. It really is amazing how much the paste reduces over the cooking time: from about eight quarts to nine cups, about a 72% reduction! You should feel proud, too, because not only is this paste delicious and useful for a myriad things, you also canned it yourself. Keep it on hand and share it with your friends.
Enjoy!
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We’d love to hear your stories about making and using this tomato paste. Have you tried it in ratatouille? How about on chicken or as part of a spaghetti sauce or in lasagna? Comment on this post and let us know all about it. We look forward to hearing from you!
