How To Make Tomato Paste (Easy, Delicious, Homemade)
Tomato paste is a wonderful thing to have on hand. It’s thick and rich with flavor. We use it for thickening spaghetti sauce, enriching the flavors in stews and soups, and for adding some zing to grilled cheese sandwiches.
Chop tomatoes into quarters. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
10 lbs Tomatoes
Combine the chopped tomatoes and olive oil in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Cook until the tomatoes are soft and the peels begin to detach from the tomato flesh.
Push the warm tomatoes through a food mill to separate the seeds and skins from the tomato pulp. Discard, dehydrate, or compost the skins.
Stir the salt and citric acid into the tomato pulp until it’s well mixed.
2 tsp Sea Salt, 1/2 tsp Citric Acid
Divide the tomato pulp between two large, rimmed baking sheets. Place the baking sheets in the preheated oven.
Check the tomatoes every half hour, stirring the paste and rotating the baking sheets so they cook down evenly.
When the paste has cook down to the point where it no longer fills the trays you can combine the contents of the two pans into one and continue to bake.
The paste is done when shiny and brick-colored, and it has reduced by more than half. There shouldn’t be any remaining water or moisture separating from the paste at this point.
Exact baking times will depend on how juicy of your tomatoes were.
Notes
To Waterbath Can: Divide finished paste into quarter-pint jelly jars, leaving 3/4″ head space. Process for 15 minutes.To Refrigerate/Freeze: Divide the paste into clean half or quarter-pint jelly jars. Top each jar with a thin layer of olive oil and place in either the refrigerator or the freezer.