Homemade Tomato Paste

Sarah Mock from Savoring The Good

Homemade tomato paste is a rich and flavorful ingredient that captures the essence of fresh tomatoes in a concentrated form.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 3

Total Time 3 15

Course Ingredient

Servings 4 4 oz jars

Wash and chop your tomatoes.
In a hot pan drizzle a little bit of olive oil. I did about an tablespoon. Add your tomatoes and cook until soft.
Pass the soft tomatoes through a food mill.
Once you have a tomato pulp and puree, return it to the stove and add 1 bay leaf per 2 pounds of tomatoes. Cook on medium high to big heat to reduce the tomatoes down to the above consistency. Be sure to stir and scrape down the edges and the bottom of the pot. The longer the tomatoes reduce into paste, the lower you should turn down the temperature.
Portion into 4 ounce canning jars and water bath can or freeze in ice cube trays.

Portioned out the tomato paste into 4 ounce canning jars. Leave ¼ inch head space on the top.
Process in a hot water bath for 40 minutes. That is right. 40 minutes. These guys may be small but the contents in them are dense.

Using my piping bag I pipped the tomato paste into each square. If you don't have a pastry bag you can always snip the corner off of a resealable plastic bag. I think a gallon bag would work well in this example. If you need ANOTHER option, you can alway just spoon the tomato paste into each cavity. I was going for 'neat' so I used the pastry bag.
Once done, pop them in the freezer until frozen through. Flip them over and they easily pop right out. I love silicone bake ware for applications like this one.
Store in an air tight container in the freezer and you have proportioned tomato paste. I am calling each square a tablespoon of tomato paste.

The approximate eight pounds of tomatoes I started with took just over 3 hours to reduce to the above consistency.

This recipe is courtesy of Sarah Mock from Savoring The Good.