Homemade Tomato Paste

Submitted by Sharon123

"This makes a great gift and is so useful in your cupboard! Adapted from Razzle Dazzle Recipes and changed a bit! This may be canned or poured into ice cube trays and frozen, to use when needed!"

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 9 1/2 pint jars

ingredients

• 8 quarts roma tomatoes, about 4 dozen (or other meaty tomatoes)
• 1 1⁄2 cups sweet red peppers, chopped (about 3)
• 1 cup chopped onion (optional)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons oregano (optional)
• 1 -2 tablespoon honey (optional-if you want it a little sweeter)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped

directions

1. Wash and trim tomatoes. Blanch and remove skin if desired, or press through sieve when done cooking.
2. Combine tomatoes, red peppers,onions, bay leaves, basil,oregano, honey, if using, and salt in a large stockpot and cook slowly for about 1 hour.
3. Press through a fine sieve. Add garlic, and continue cooking slowly until thick enough to keep its shape on a spoon, about 2 1/2 hours. Stir frequently to keep from sticking.(this could be done in a crockpot-just stir and keep an eye on it).
4. Pour through sieve(if you left the skins on), then pour into hot 1/2 pint canning jars, leaving 1/2" headspace.
5. Process 1/2 pints 45 minutes in a boiling water bath.
6. Makes about 9 1/2 pint jars.

Reviews

[sdlawrence]

Amazing, thank you! The flavors from the other ingredients are so subtle, and in the most perfect way. I did one batch with Roma, and also one with San Marzano, both fresh and vine ripened from the garden. Both pastes turned out great, but the depth of flavor of San Marzano batch is superior by a long shot. If you have access to San Marzano tomatoes, by all means substitute! (done growing Roma's after this side-by-side taste test).

 

[packeyes]

This is the first time I've ever had a big garden and I needed tomato paste for a spaghetti recipe. I used this paste recipe and it came out wonderful! So easy to do and the results were much better than store bought. I love the ice cube tray suggestion - I told my 80 year old Grandma about that and she was impressed wanting to know where I got such a great idea from - thank you Sharon for making me look like a genius to a woman who knows it all when it comes to the kitchen! I have prepared this 2 times in one week and am going to use up all my extra tomatoes with this recipe. I added in all the optionals in the recipe - fantastic outcome!

 

[hobbgal]

Very good! I put all the veggies through the Vita Mix and then added everything else except the honey. I didn't have an onion so I used 1 teaspoon onion granules. I had to simmer it for an evening and most of a day to get it to reduce, but it was worth it! Soooo very good! I am going to buy some more tomatoes and make another 1 or 2 batches! Thank you so much for this recipe. I also trust this recipe because it is almost like the recipe on the University of Georgia site! I also water bath canned it for 45 minutes.

 

[Kittencalrecipezazz]

What a great recipe for homemade tomato paste! I reduced this recipe by half and used Roma tomatoes, I also increased the fresh garlic, I plan on making this again to have on hand for recipes, thanks for sharing hon!...Kitten :)

 

[pammibb]

For the beginner: It should be noted that it takes a L-O-N-G time to make this recipe. That whole part about "press through a fine sieve" takes very long and it has to be done unless you want a ton of tomato seeds in your paste. I never got it down to a paste because I just didn't have enough time allotted for this. Also, the measurements are not "exact" because it kind of matters really how many tomatoes you have. Because tomatoes can be different sizes, the overall weight should really be used as the amount instead of quarts. I'm glad I didn't add all the salt the recipe calls for because mine would have been too salty. Having said all that...I didn't want to end my post with it being all negative. This was my first time to attempt to make tomato sauce/paste. I've been wanting to try for a long time. We finally had some home grown tomatoes this year (Roma's) and we had a bunch ripe at the same time, so I took the opportunity to try this because I knew my fresh tomatoes would likely go to waste otherwise. I am actually very tickled out how it turned out. (Even though it's not quite paste.) It does taste really good and I'm anxious to use it in a recipe. This was a learning experience for me and next time, I'll make sure I have enough time to push all that mush through the sieve! I did freeze it in an ice tray and will add to it when I have enough more ripe tomatoes. I found an ice tray with attached lids to help keep it fresh in the freezer.