In honor of January, being National Slow Cooking Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Tomato Paste”; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 64). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)].
As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
TOMATO PASTE (Homemade)
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 64). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
[*If you have the time, this is best made in a slow-cooker to prevent scorching.]
INGREDIENTS:
4-quarts ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
2 tablespoons table salt
1-quart oil – corn, vegetable, or safflower
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place tomatoes in a shallow pan and sprinkle with the salt. Let them stand for 4 hours; then, put them in a 4-quart kettle (without adding any other liquids) and bring them to a slow and easy boil. The heat will force the tomatoes and salt to draw their own juice. Stir constantly until soft.
Press this mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove seeds and skins. Return to kettle to cook gently (*or into a slow-cooker to prevent scorching) until it’s reduced to a puree, thick enough to spread with a knife over the surface of a lightly-greased roasting pan or jelly roll pan.
Score the paste in several places with the knife. Oven-dry it at the lowest heat setting, leaving the oven door open an inch, until the paste is thick enough to shape into 1-inch balls.
Place the balls in a container with a loose-fitting lid and let them stand at room temperature for 4 days (mark the time down so that you give the balls at least 72 hours of drying time), at which time, knead the tomato balls into a smooth mixture. Shape the mixture, again, into smaller balls, ½ inch in diameter.
Dip each ball into the oil (important to cover them completely in oil) and then drop them back into the container, keeping the container covered with wax paper or cheese cloth that’s secured with a rubber band (or use a Mason jar with a Snap-On-type of sealing top.)
Aunt Angela preferred Olive Oil when she made these; but, with cholesterol of such concern these days, I try to stick with the lighter oils…it’s up to you.
To reconstitute the balls, mash the tomato paste into a measuring cup and measure out an equal amount of warm tap water, stirring it into the paste until smooth. Then use it in place of any commercial-type tomato paste. It keeps at room temperature for months.
If you plan to use the ½-inch tomato paste balls for specific recipes you can season the oil to your liking with garlic powder, or onion powder, or finely-crushed oregano leaves (however you like) before dipping the balls into it.
If the balls seem to dry too quickly, you can drizzle a little more oil over them while in the storage jar after a week or two, depending on the amount of humidity in the room. You can freeze them to keep for years too. This recipe makes about 50 balls, each ½ inch in diameter
See also…
