Today I turned 6 pounds of beautiful Roma tomatoes into two 1/2 cup portions of delicious rich tomato paste. I looked all over for a good recipe and decided to combine a few different ideas.
I started with 6 pounds of chopped tomatoes (next time I will skin them first or buy a food mill)
3 chopped red bell peppers
2 bay leaves
2 crushed cloves of garlic
Bit of Sea salt to taste
Combine it all and let it simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes and peppers were soft. then run them through a food mill or run them in the food processer. Dump all of the liquid and pulp onto an oiled tray and put in the oven at 300 for about 3 1/2 hours. Every half hour just stir it around a bit.
After about 2 hours you will have something like this…
It’s not quite done, let it go for another hour or so and stir a bit more frequently until it has a brick like color. Here is where having a food mill pays off. If you have a food mill you are all ready to put your tomato paste away and use it when ready, if you don’t have a food mill you need to strain out those seeds and skins. I tried before putting it in the oven but it wasn’t very easy. After the oven it’s not too bad. You just need a sieve, wooden spoon and a lot of elbow grease. After that you will have about a cup of tomato paste to enjoy. Back into sterile jars and top off with enough olive oil to cover, label and enjoy.
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