Homemade tomato paste will be an excellent preparation for the winter. With it you can cook a lot of dishes, from cold snacks to hot. In addition, such a sauce is much more useful than a store, because it does not contain preservatives and an excess of salt. Therefore, knowledge of how to cook tomato paste will be useful to every housewife.
Note that you should store the result in a sealed glass container, and always open the jar after use in the refrigerator. Tomato paste at home is prepared in several ways, but first you need to understand the basic secrets of a delicious dish, common to all recipes.
Cooking Tips
Choose only ripe tomatoes. It does not matter if there are slight defects on the skin, they can be cut off. Rinse fruit thoroughly before cooking. Tomato paste at home can be chopped in different ways, for example, you can use a meat grinder. If there is a little sauce, you can cook it with a blender. Some recipes recommend pre-boiling tomatoes, while others suggest cutting them and putting them in a bag, through the holes in which excess liquid drains. One way or another, you always need to cook the sauce over high heat and stir constantly. Do not fill the cookware to the brim - the paste can foam quite a lot during boiling.
In addition, the container should not be made of aluminum - it is oxidized, filling the products with harmful substances. Mix with a wooden spoon. How long does it take to cook tomato paste at home? Cooking is hardly tedious - the process itself will not take more than half an hour. The result is an excellent vegetable puree, the liquid from which evaporated during cooking. How useful the product will be depends on the method and duration of preparation.
Tomato paste at home
So, with the secrets of cooking, everything is clear, you can get down to business. To cook a thick tomato mass, you need three kilograms of tomatoes, an onion, three teaspoons of sugar, two teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of vinegar (be sure to take apple, not alcohol), spices, bay leaf.
Grind the tomatoes with a juicer, filter out the excess juice, mix all the ingredients and boil over high heat. Only a quarter of an hour will be enough. After that, pour the still hot tomato puree into the jars and put it in storage.
Second cooking option
This method involves a longer boil to obtain a thick consistency. Take ripe tomatoes, dip in hot water to make it easier to get rid of the peel, peel, cut and remove seeds with excess juice. Transfer to a pan and start cooking, occasionally draining excess liquid. After that, grind the tomatoes with a blender, add spices, salt, sugar to taste. Send to the stove, turned on a small fire, and cook, stirring occasionally. After a few hours, you will get a very thick and fragrant tomato puree that perfectly complements any dish.