Tomato puree for the winter: 3 best homemade recipes

Prepared by: Nufica

11/11/2014 Cooking time: 1 hour 0 minutes

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Tomato puree is used as a base for other sauces such as marinara or salsa. It differs from tomato sauce in that it is generally thicker and cooks faster.

Features of preparing tomato puree for the winter

In order for the preparation for the winter to turn out tasty and retain the maximum of vitamins, you need to know some subtleties:

There are two ways to make tomato paste: freezing and canning. The first method is freezing chopped tomato pulp. The second is preparing puree in the form of canned food.
It is very important to use sterilized containers for canning. To seal the jars, well-boiled metal lids are used to ensure complete tightness.
The preparation can be made with sugar, salt, or without them. The method of storing tomato puree will depend on this.

Cooking features

You can make tomato puree for the winter from tomato juice or pulp, even from the cake left over from preparing other canned food. Knowing several features of the technology will protect you from mistakes and allow you to get the expected result.

Tomato puree for the winter can be prepared by freezing or canning. The first method is the simplest: the crushed tomato pulp is placed in cleanly washed containers or ice trays and placed in the freezer. If the puree is made from cake, it is laid out in cells and filled with cold boiled water - a teaspoon per cell, then it is also put into the freezer. After hardening, the cubes of tomato puree from the containers can be transferred to a bag, but it will have to be stored in the freezer. If you do not have a special freezer and you store food in the freezer of the refrigerator, it is irrational to occupy it with frozen puree; it would be more advisable to prepare it in the form of canned food.
When canning tomato puree, use only clean containers. It is not enough to wash the jars under it - they need to be sterilized. The lids are also sterilized, usually by boiling. The puree should be closed with metal lids that ensure a tight seal; plastic ones will not cope with this task.
To ensure that the tomato puree has a smooth consistency, the tomatoes are peeled before chopping. To do this, the fruits are cut crosswise and dipped into boiling water. After 2 minutes, remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a container with cold water. After this procedure, removing the skin will not be difficult.
Tomato puree will have an even more delicate consistency if you rub the tomato pulp through a sieve. This will allow you to get rid of not only the skin, but also the seeds.
To prepare tomato puree, you should choose meaty vegetables, otherwise the puree will turn out too liquid or there will be little of it. It is impossible to make puree from unripe tomatoes. They should be ripe or even overripe, but not spoiled.
Tomato puree can be prepared for the winter with or without the addition of sugar, salt. Without the addition of these products, the puree is stored worse; it can only be kept in a cellar, basement or similar cool place. Tomato puree, covered with salt, can stand at room temperature.
For better preservation, jars of prepared tomato puree are turned over and covered with a blanket, leaving to cool in a steam bath.

Recipe Ingredients Required

The main ingredient of the preparation is, of course, tomatoes. You should choose meaty rather than watery vegetables, otherwise the puree may turn out runny.

It is important that the tomatoes are ripe, or better yet overripe, but in no case spoiled.

Depending on the recipe, other products may be needed: salt, sugar, spices (to taste).

How to prepare tomato puree for the winter

Homemade tomato puree is much tastier and more affordable than the store-bought version. I always make this preparation for the winter: it is a simple way to preserve tomatoes that does not create storage problems. This recipe is convenient for summer residents when processing a large harvest, but tomatoes are also easy to buy in the fall.

Preparing vegetables – 15 min.,

Slicing and chopping – 15 min.,

Cooking time – 2 hours.

Prepared: on the stove

Tomatoes – 4 kg,
Salt – 2 tbsp. l.,
Sugar – 4 tbsp. l.

Preparation of raw materials

Selected tomatoes are thoroughly washed and dried. In order for the puree to be smooth, pleasant in appearance and taste, the tomatoes are peeled before cooking. This is done like this: the tomatoes are carefully cut crosswise at the point where the stalk is attached, and placed in boiling water for 2 minutes. After this, remove with a slotted spoon and easily remove the skin.

Tomato puree for the winter

Monday, September 3, 2022

A very useful preparation of tomatoes for the winter in all respects is preparing tomato puree. This is a completely natural semi-finished product that will become the basis for various types of sauces, first and second courses, casseroles, stews, pizza, and drinks. All these delicious dishes can be prepared in winter with a couple of liters of homemade tomato puree.

Tomatoes that are perfectly ripened, soft, juicy and meaty are ideal for such preservation. We will not add salt, sugar and vinegar - you can use these seasonings in the process of preparing dishes with tomato puree. From just 1.5 kilograms of fresh tomatoes I get about 650 milliliters of tomato puree for the winter.

Ingredients:

Cooking step by step:

To prepare homemade tomato puree for the winter, we only need fresh tomatoes.

Wash the tomatoes. If your fruits are not of very good quality, be sure to remove the damaged areas. Rotten tomatoes naturally belong not in the kitchen, but in the trash.

After this you will need to remove the skin. The skin is removed very easily, quickly and simply from soft, juicy and fully ripened fruits.

Using any convenient method, we turn the peeled tomato slices into a puree. I like to make this with an immersion blender, but it works great in a food processor or food processor. In essence, the result is very thick tomato juice with pulp, but its consistency directly depends on the variety and juiciness of the fruit.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the presence of seeds in the puree, so I always rub the tomato mass through a sieve. Thanks to the fact that we removed the skin, the whole process takes just a few minutes.

The result is still quite thick tomato juice, but we are preparing puree, so it needs to be evaporated. Pour the tomato juice into a saucepan of suitable volume, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat until desired thickness. During the cooking process, do not forget to stir the contents so that the thick tomato mass does not stick to the bottom of the dish.

After 30 minutes, the tomato puree has reached the desired consistency - it resembles tomato sauce, only a little thinner.

Pour the boiling tomato puree into previously prepared dishes (sterilized glass jars with lids).

We tightly screw the jars with screw caps or close them using a seaming key. From just 1.5 kilograms of fresh tomatoes I get about 650 milliliters of tomato puree for the winter.

I will be glad if this simple recipe for vegetable preparation, useful in the kitchen, is useful to you. Cook for your health, friends, and bon appetit!

Heat treatment

Aluminum cookware is not used for heat treatment of tomatoes. A pan made of glass, stainless steel or enameled is suitable.

Place the prepared tomatoes in a saucepan and place on the fire. After boiling, cook without a lid for about 20 minutes. The thickness of the tomato puree will depend on the boiling time. The finished paste is poured onto a sieve and allowed to stand.

Preparing the necessary containers

To prepare twists for the winter, you will need standard glass jars with a volume of two or three liters.

Preliminary preparation of containers consists of two equally important stages:

Wash containers in warm water with enough baking soda.
Twenty-minute sterilization in the oven, over steam or in a pan of boiling water.

How to make tomato puree at home?

Making tomato puree at home is very easy. Here are a few recipes for this healthy preparation.

Classic recipe

The classic recipe for making tomato puree is as follows (to get 3 liters you need 4 kg of tomatoes):

Prepare vegetables.
Cut them into large slices.
Grind the pulp using a meat grinder or blender. To obtain an even more delicate consistency, rub the resulting mass through a sieve.
Prepare jars and lids.
Place the chopped tomatoes in a saucepan, add salt (for 4 kg of tomatoes - 40 grams of salt). If the puree is prepared without salt, there is no need to add it.
Carry out heat treatment.
Pour the finished mixture into jars and roll them up.
Turn the jars over, cover with a blanket, and leave for a day.

If desired, you can add sugar. In this case, for 4 kg of tomato you need to take 30 g of sugar and salt, and add them to the pureed mass before it is put on the fire.

To give a more expressive taste, add parsley, basil or other dried herbs.

Seasonings are added after boiling the pureed tomato mass.

Option without sterilization

There is another way to prepare pasta that does not require sterilization of the container: the prepared tomato puree is poured into small molds and frozen. Frozen pieces are placed in plastic bags and stored in the freezer compartment.

With pepper

To obtain 5 liters of tomato puree with pepper you will need:

4.2 kg tomato;
4 kg of fresh bell pepper;
20 grams each of allspice and black pepper, you can add a bay leaf.

Preparation:

The pepper is washed, placed in calcined oil for half a minute, and then doused with cold water. Remove the skin, seeds and stalks. You don’t have to remove the skin, then the fruits need to be immersed in boiling water for 3 minutes.
Prepare tomato puree.
Place spices at the bottom of the prepared jars, pour in a little puree, and then add chopped peppers. All this is again poured with hot tomato puree.
Take a pan with hot water, place the jars in and sterilize for 40-50 minutes.
The jars are rolled up, turned over and cooled.

Tomato puree with salt

Composition (per 3 l):

tomatoes – 4 kg;
salt – 40 g.

Cooking method:

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and peel them. Cut out the seals around the stalks.
Cut the tomato pulp into slices or cubes, grind to a puree using kitchen equipment (blender, meat grinder).
Place the puree in a saucepan and add salt.
Bring to a boil over low heat and cook for 20 minutes. If foam appears on the surface, remove it.
Pour the puree into prepared jars (washed with soda, sterilized). Seal them tightly.
Place the jars bottoms up and cover with a blanket. Leave it like this until it cools completely.

How to store tomato puree?

Most often, tomato puree is salted, poured boiling into small glass jars, sterilized in a water bath, oven or convection oven, rolled up and stored in a cool place. The mode of preparation, sterilization and storage is no fundamentally different from the scheme for canning some lecho, paprikash or squash caviar, so we will not dwell on this issue in detail.

Another question sounds much more interesting: how to preserve an already opened jar, since it is quite difficult to use 200 g or half a liter of concentrated tomato at one time?

Two methods can be recommended: traditional and modern.

Our mothers and grandmothers covered the surface of the tomato puree with coarse salt (this prevents both souring and the proliferation of mold fungi), and then covered it with a layer of vegetable oil of at least a centimeter to prevent contact with air oxygen. In this form, the tomato can be stored in the refrigerator for quite a long time, but after each use the salt and oil layers must be restored.

The second method arose quite recently - with the advent of vacuum plastic lids. We simply cover the opened and partially emptied jar with a vacuum lid, use a special pump to pump out the air - and without additional tricks you can store tomato paste not even in the refrigerator, but in a cool, preferably dark place.

But the most convenient and technologically advanced way to preserve and use tomato puree is, without a doubt, freezing!