Tomato paste is simply an irreplaceable product in winter and summer. Without it, it is impossible to imagine preparing borscht, kharcho, ketchup, stew, gravy for cutlets and many other dishes. I, being a supporter of natural food, prepare it for the winter only myself, at home. After all, the store-bought equivalent, as a rule, contains various preservatives, artificial colors and flavors.
At first glance, it may seem difficult to prepare. This is not true; even those who have never prepared it can handle it. Although, of course, it will take some time and labor, for example, for the moisture contained in the tomatoes to evaporate and the mass to thicken, it will take about 2 hours. But later you will get a delicious winter preparation with which you can cook your favorite dishes.
I present to you 5 recipes for delicious tomato dressing. They differ in the method of grinding tomato pulp - using a juicer, blender, meat grinder or just a sieve. Choose any one you wish or, for example, whichever seems least labor-intensive to you.
How to prepare homemade tomato paste for the winter using a meat grinder
Let's start with the fastest recipe for making pasta at home. For this you will need a meat grinder. It will make cooking easier that even novice cooks can handle, because you won’t have to grate each tomato on a grater or sieve. And don’t be afraid that vegetables minced through a meat grinder will lose their beneficial substances; in fact, they are preserved.
Ingredients:
- 4 kg of tomatoes;
- 1 tbsp. salt;
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil.
Preparation:
1. In general, only ripe tomatoes are used to make pasta. And the meatier the pulp, the less unnecessary liquid will be formed, which will have to be evaporated.
If the tomatoes have defects, remove them with a knife.
2. Then twist through the fine grid of a meat grinder.
3. Place the grated tomatoes in a deep saucepan and place on the stove, but do not fill it to the brim, because the mixture may form foam during the boiling process. Add salt and vegetable oil. Mix well and bring to a boil.
4. If the mixture turns out watery after boiling, boil for another 30-45 minutes, if thick - 10-15 minutes.
5. Tomato paste prepared in a meat grinder is ready! Now pour it into pre-sterilized jars and roll up. It can also be used to make soups, sauces, pizza (instead of ketchup).
By the way, you can store it in the freezer, so it will retain its aroma and taste. And defrost it every time in winter and use it when preparing various dishes. Which is very convenient, isn't it?
Rules for choosing suitable vegetables
The quality of tomatoes affects the taste, texture, shelf life and aroma of the final product. When choosing vegetables for pasta or juice, you should adhere to the following recommendations:
- The best option for such preparations for the winter is the “Bull’s Heart” variety and its analogues. If you cook products from such fruits, then even at home you can count on getting a thick and rich composition. But slightly watery tomatoes without a pronounced color give a mass that is too liquid and tasteless.
- It is recommended to use ripe and even slightly overripe fruits for paste and juice. They may be crushed and soft, but this will not reduce the quality of the workpiece.
- There should be no unripe tomatoes in such dishes at all. No matter how many of them are included in the composition of the final product, this will certainly negatively affect its consistency, color and taste.
- Housewives are somehow not used to preparing cherry tomato twists, which can be considered a significant omission. The components will all be cut into pieces and processed early on, and the pulp of products of this type is ideal for making paste or juice.
The ideal basis for creating blanks will be components grown in beds under direct sunlight. Greenhouse specimens contain insufficient water and have a characteristic sourness, which affects the quality of the final product. If it is not possible to trace the origin of tomatoes, they at least need to be purchased strictly in season, and not in supermarkets, but in food markets.
A simple step-by-step recipe for making tomato paste at home
Here's another homemade recipe for the winter. It’s also easy to prepare, and our preparation turns out very tasty, and what’s most interesting is that it doesn’t contain any spices or oils. Therefore, it will especially appeal to those who do not like spicy dishes.
Ingredients:
- 3 kg of tomatoes;
- salt to taste.
Preparation:
1. Take fresh and juicy tomatoes. Soft and wrinkled fruits are also suitable, but not spoiled ones. Cut each of them into several slices and place them in the pan. Cover with a lid and place over medium heat for 30-40 minutes to soften later.
2. While they are cooking, make sure that the juice does not run away, this happens if you cook them over high heat.
3. During this time they will settle and release juice. If you notice that some tomatoes are damp and the peel is not very soft, then let them simmer a little more without covering the pan with a lid.
4. Then let the finished mixture brew and cool. Next, drain the excess liquid into another container; we won’t need it.
5. The remaining fleshy part must be rubbed through a sieve. This way the seeds and skins will end up on the sieve, and the pulp will go down.
6. This is how you get a thick, very tasty juice, which should either be put on the fire for several hours so that the liquid evaporates, or grind again using a fine sieve or double gauze.
7. We will use the second method, since it is faster. The liquid passed through the sieve will go down, and what remains in the sieve, the thick part, pour into another pan.
8. This is the mass for the paste. Now put it on the stove and cook for 30-60 minutes. If desired, you can add salt to your taste.
9. Stir occasionally and after a while, when the mass acquires the required thickness, it will be ready. Now you need to put it in a pre-sterilized jar and close the lid. This is what we got.
10. Turn her over and wrap her in something warm. So let it cool completely until tomorrow. Store in a cool, dry place, such as a cellar or basement.
Sauce cooking time
The sauce is prepared as follows:
- Initially, the tomatoes are cut into 4-6 pieces and heated on fire for 4-5 minutes.
- As soon as the vegetables become soft, rub them through a fine sieve, discarding the skin and large seeds.
- The resulting juice with pulp is placed in a wide container and boiled for a long time until it reaches a thick consistency, periodically removing the resulting foam, while the sauce should boil.
- As soon as the volume of tomato puree is reduced by three times, the necessary spices and seasonings are added to the mixture.
- Seasoned tomatoes continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes, and after the time has elapsed, place them in prepared containers.
Advice! To cook the sauce, use basins or saucepans with low sides. In this case, the excess liquid will evaporate faster and the sauce will reach the required consistency.
Preparing tomato paste for the winter without vinegar
If, in addition to tomatoes, you have also harvested a large harvest of apples, you can also use them to make tomato paste. With the addition of apples, it turns out with a rich taste and delicate texture. If you want a winter preparation with sourness, add sour apples; if you want a sweeter one, add correspondingly sweet ones. And if you consider that it is prepared without vinegar, then it’s just doubly good!
Ingredients:
- 4 kg of tomatoes;
- 1 kg apples;
- ½ kg of onion;
- 3 tbsp. Sahara;
- 3 tbsp. salt;
- 20 black peppercorns;
- 8 bay leaves;
- 5 whole cloves;
- 1 tbsp. red pepper;
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon.
Preparation:
1. For this recipe, select the ripest and fleshiest tomatoes. Grind them together with apples and onions in a meat grinder. Then the ground ingredients should be poured into the pan and stirred.
Do not cook in aluminum cookware, as aluminum oxidizes, thereby allowing toxic substances to enter the food.
2. This mixture should be simmered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3. After an hour, add sugar and salt. You can vary their quantity according to your taste. Mix well again and then add black pepper, bay leaf, cloves, red pepper and cinnamon.
4. Then mix everything well again and continue cooking over low heat for about 3 hours. After this time has passed, the sauce will be ready.
5. The result should be about 3 liters of sauce. Therefore, we prepared 6 half-liter jars, added boiling water (half a jar) to each of them and closed the lid. Due to the high temperature and steam, the jar along with the lid will be sterilized if left in this state for 10-15 minutes.
6. After this, open the lids and pour out the boiling water. Then turn the jars upside down and place them on a towel to remove excess moisture. Pour the resulting sauce into jars.
7. The next day, when it has cooled down, put it in a cold place, in a cellar or refrigerator. If desired, you can rub it through a sieve to obtain a more homogeneous mass that resembles a store-bought product.
How to pickle green tomatoes
Not many people know that tomatoes can be used in home canning while they are not yet fully ripe. In this recipe, the so-called milk tomatoes are tart in taste with a slightly sour taste. To try pickling, you will have to arm yourself with patience, because the tomatoes will be ready only after five weeks.
Cooking time: 60 min. Number of servings: 18-20.
Ingredients:
For a three-liter jar:
- Green tomatoes – 2.2 kg.
- Two leaves of horseradish.
- Six cloves of garlic.
- Hot pepper - half a pod.
- Salt – 6.5 tbsp.
- A bunch of parsley and dill.
Preparation:
1. It is better to take dill with umbrellas, so the pickles will taste more aromatic. Wash all the greens and cut into small pieces.
2. Place half the herbs, as well as a couple of cloves of garlic and coarsely chopped hot pepper into a washed and already sterilized jar. If you do not eat too spicy foods, then you should remove all the seeds from the pod.
3. Fill the jar with tomatoes. To ensure that the fruits lie tightly, but at the same time do not lose their shape and integrity, shake the jar periodically.
4. Then prepare a filling from one and a half liters of filtered water and table salt. Pour the resulting brine over the tomatoes.
5. Now cover the jar with a towel and remove to infuse - leave at room temperature for five days. After this time has expired, seal the jar with a plastic (nylon) lid and transfer it to a cool place for a month. After five weeks, the green tomatoes will be ready to serve.
How to quickly make tomato paste from tomatoes using a blender
I also prepare it through a blender. How is this device convenient? And the fact that it can quickly and thoroughly chop tomatoes along with other ingredients, thereby saving me my time. If you don’t have one, be sure to purchase such an indispensable kitchen assistant. Although, if you have a food processor, you can use it instead of a blender.
Ingredients:
- 9 kg. tomatoes;
- 800 gr. Luke;
- 100 gr. garlic;
- 750 gr. Sahara;
- 6 tbsp. salt;
- 200 gr. vinegar (9%);
- 5 bay leaves;
- 1 tsp carnations;
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon.
Preparation:
1. Place washed tomatoes in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Next, remove them from the boiling water and fill them with cold water and leave for a few minutes. This will make it easier to remove the skin.
2. Now peel off the skin and cut into small pieces. Then put them in a blender in their purified form. Add chopped onion, garlic and chop.
3. This is what should happen.
4. Then put this mass in a saucepan and place on the stove. When it boils, cook for another 45 minutes. Remember to stir constantly to prevent the paste from burning.
5. After a while, add sugar, salt and mix well. Cook for another 45 minutes.
6. Next, take bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon and red pepper and wrap them in a small layer of gauze in a bag. Throw this bag into the brew and cook for another 1.5 hours. Then add 200 ml of vinegar and continue cooking for 20 minutes.
7. Now pour the mixture into jars and roll up the lids.
Store tomato paste with the lid down to extend its shelf life.
It will contain the seeds and pulp of the tomato. If you want to get a more uniform structure, that is, like in the store, then you will have to grind it through a sieve.
Collecting the necessary tools
When creating preparations for the winter, special attention should be paid to the selection of suitable utensils and auxiliary tools. Firstly, when planting tomatoes at home, you need to make sure that everything you need is at hand. Secondly, it is worth making sure the quality of the devices used.
When boiling pasta or juice, you need to pay attention to the following points:
- If the recipe involves infusion and heat treatment, the duration of which does not exceed 1 hour, the container can be aluminum. Otherwise, you will have to choose dishes from a different material (cast iron, iron, enamel), otherwise oxidation processes will begin, negatively affecting the quality of the composition.
- It is recommended to ensure that you have a juicer, which will facilitate the process of separating the juice from the pulp and veins. If there is no such device, you will have to limit yourself to a sieve or colander.
Tip: Housewives who have to close store-bought vegetables for the winter can use one simple trick - after cutting the tomatoes, sprinkle them with a small amount of salt and leave for 15 minutes. This will stimulate the juice to flow and squeeze as much liquid out of the pulp as possible.
- We use glass jars for twists and iron lids.
In addition to the above and the ingredients themselves, we prepare a seaming key and a ladle, with which we will pour the pasta or juice.
Recipe for making tomato paste using a juicer
And to prepare this paste you will need a juicer. Of course, it also greatly speeds up cooking, and it also produces more homogeneous juice, without seeds and without large pieces of fruit. Briefly prepared like this. The squeezed juice is boiled through a juicer in a saucepan over moderate heat until foam appears and to the desired thickness. Pour into hot sterilized jars and you're done!
Ingredients:
- 9 kg of tomatoes;
- 2 tbsp. salt.
Preparation:
1. Cut the washed tomatoes into slices and pass them through a juicer.
2. Place the resulting tomato juice on low heat. You don’t have to constantly stand at the stove, just stir once every 10-15 minutes for 1.5 hours. After this time, the composition will thicken, its volume will become less and then you need to stir more often.
3. Add salt. Although you don’t have to put it in, this paste will keep well in the refrigerator if the jars and lids are well sterilized. As soon as bubbles appear, it means it is almost ready. At this time, you need to stand at the stove and stir continuously so that it does not burn.
4. Place it in sterilized jars and screw the lids on well. Place it upside down and cover with a thick cloth. Let cool and then store. The result is 1.5 liters of tomato paste.
Here, perhaps, are all the recipes for such a tomato preparation, with or without the use of modern kitchen appliances. By the way, do you know how to store opened tomato paste? Everything is very easy. When you open the jar and take the required amount, level the top with a spoon and pour in a little refined vegetable oil (about 1 cm). This is a kind of protective barrier that will prevent our product from becoming moldy.
What kind of container to cook tomatoes in?
A caring housewife will definitely ask herself the question: is it possible to cook a tomato in an aluminum pan? There is no definite answer here: if utensils made of such material are used for 1-3 hours, then oxidation will not occur, but if the juice is infused and then only boiled, then it is better to choose other types of utensils. No chemical processes occur in an iron, enameled or cast iron pan, so they are recommended for cooking tomatoes. Here is a list of utensils that may be needed for cooking tomatoes:
- Juicer for quickly removing the pulp and veins of tomatoes from the juice.
- A saucepan or large deep bowl for cooking juice.
- Colander or sieve (for straining the sauce after cooking, if a juicer was not used before).
- Storage containers (jars with screws or tin lids).
- A scoop or large mug for pouring tomato juice into jars.
- Seaming key (if classic tin lids for jars are used).
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Recipe for delicious tomatoes
This preparation method does not require many ingredients for its preparation, but the result is no worse than the recipe listed above.
Product composition:
- Red tomatoes – 9000 grams;
- Onion – 4 heads;
- Garlic – 16 cloves;
- Dill – 100 grams;
- Table vinegar – 250 grams 9%
- Vegetable oil – 450 grams;
- Laurel – 10 leaves;
- Fragrant – 11 pieces;
- Hot pepper – 2 fruits;
- Granulated sugar – 200 grams;
- Rock salt – 6 teaspoons;
- Drinking water – 3 liters.
What to do:
- Approximate set for ten liter jars.
- We first prepare containers of the required volume by sterilization. And put hot pepper, garlic, bay and allspice in them.
- Pour three tablespoons of refined oil into each container.
You can use refined flavored oil, then the snack will be more flavorful, but this is not for everyone.
- Then comes the turn of tomatoes and onions.
- Separately, boil water with salt and granulated sugar, and at the very end add table vinegar.
- Pour marinade into jars of vegetables and sterilize them for fifteen minutes.
- Next, roll up the jars and cool under a blanket. And after complete cooling, we transfer them to the basement for storage.
- No matter how many different options I close for the winter, they are all eaten without even waiting until early spring. So we have to increase the volume of products we close every year.
Secrets of harvesting tomatoes from around the world
Having found out that this vegetable is beneficial to the body, we will prepare preparations according to accessible recipes so that it will be tasty all winter long.
"Grandma's" recipe
It is prepared very quickly: for a 3-liter jar we take 2 onions, 4-5 cloves of garlic, one carrot, 3 celery leaves, 5 pieces each of black and allspice, 2-3 cloves, salt - 2 tbsp. l., sugar - 3 tbsp. l., vinegar - 2.5 tbsp. 9% (or 1 tsp 70%).
Cooking steps:
- Place tomatoes and all the spices in a jar, add boiling water and heat for 20 minutes. Large fruits can be placed in halves.
- Drain the liquid, boil again, adding salt, sugar, and vinegar. Then fill the container to the very top.
- Roll them up, put them on the lids, and wrap them up to warm them up better.
Without vinegar
For the next recipe, tomatoes of different ripeness are suitable - red, brown, green. Let's prepare wooden tubs. If not, glass jars will also work.
We'll add different spices to the tomatoes (cherry and currant leaves, horseradish, dill, bay leaves), and fill them with brine - 600-800 g of salt per 10 liters of water. Vegetables should lie in this brine for 1.5 months.
It is best to serve it on the table for the New Year or in the spring, when all the reserves have been eaten.
If slightly brown tomatoes are washed, dried, placed in fried jars, sprinkled with dry mustard (4 heaped tablespoons), and rolled up. They will last well in the jar until the New Year.
A simple recipe for tomatoes without sterilization
Every housewife is simply obliged to prepare tomatoes in completely different ways. And here is one of the simple and tasty ways that literally made my whole family fall in love with it. And the fact that it is also prepared without sterilization, I am happy to cook it in huge quantities.
What you will need:
- Tomatoes – 3000 grams;
- Sweet pepper – 1 fruit;
- Table vinegar - a couple of tablespoons;
- Granulated sugar – 90 grams;
- Rock salt - one tablespoon;
- Garlic – 5 cloves;
- Sweet peas – 5 peas;
- Laurel – 3 leaves.
These ingredients are designed for a three-liter bottle.
Let's get started:
- Rinse all workpieces in running water. Cut the sweet pepper into strips. Peel the garlic.
- Place laurel and allspice in sterilized jars. Next, fill a third with tomatoes, then again, not a lot of sweet pepper and garlic. Fill the containers until they are full.
- Pour boiling water into the jars, filling them to the brim. Leave for twenty minutes.
- Then drain the water and boil again.
- Place rock salt and granulated sugar, as well as table vinegar, into jars.
- Pour boiling water into the cylinders a second time. We roll up the tin lids and place them upside down. Let them cool under a warm blanket for about one day.
Despite the fact that we do not sterilize vegetables, they can be perfectly stored even in an apartment for one calendar year.
