Ok, ok. I know this isn’t technically tomato paste. It’s a total food preservation hack, but I love finding those. Especially when it comes to getting the most bang for my garden-fresh-tomato-buck!
You know how happy I have been about finding a way to get 3 quarts of the most delicious tomato sauce with only 6 pounds of tomatoes? Well, this recipe makes me just as happy.
Here’s the problem with making your own tomato paste as I see it- I don’t like growing paste tomatoes. I don’t think they taste all that good and so the homemade tomato products made from them just don’t knock my socks off. Not only that but if you thought it took forever to make tomato sauce only to get a piddly little yield, it’s even worse when making tomato paste. Hours and hours of time, pounds, and pounds of tomatoes, for what? A couple half pints? Honestly, I don’t even bother.
Well, this tomato “paste” is so much more delicious, so incredibly simple to make, and while the yield isn’t stellar, at least you don’t have to grow an extra plant simply for making the paste. I don’t know about your cherry tomatoes, but mine just keep giving and growing. More than we need so this method is an excellent way to preserve their abundance and flavor into the coming colder months.
How simple is it to make them? Let me tell you…
-Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment and fill it with cherry tomatoes.
-Roast them for an hour or so.
-Puree the roasted tomatoes & strain the seeds (if you want to).
-Then freeze or can them.
Pretty rough, huh?Â
A few tips:
• Line your pan. Trust me, line your pan. The sugars on the tomatoes will burn quickly and they are real hard to clean off. Ideally, I’d use disposable trays, but normally just line them with foil, making sure they wrap up and around the edges. Parchment paper would work even better.
• During most of the roasting, the tomatoes will be releasing their liquid as steam. When it’s gone, they start to burn quickly so you’ll need to keep an eye on them. You don’t really want their sugars to burn to the bottom of the tray. It makes a mess. But if that happens, it happens. One of my trays burned a little this morning, I used it anyway. It’s still fine and once you add it to your recipe this winter, you’ll never even know.
•  I have a cheap blender. If what I’m pureeing isn’t very wet, it doesn’t work very well. If your blender isn’t up to the task either, the fix is easy. Toss a small, fresh tomato in there. The tomato paste won’t be quite as thick, but it’s still pretty thick! (See the two previous images.) I tried it with an immersion blender this morning and it wasn’t sure if it wanted to work, but eventually we got the job done without the extra fresh tomato.
• You can strain the seeds from your tomato paste if you want to. Last year, I didn’t bother. Today I used my foley mill to remove the seeds, but it added an extra step so I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. I never noticed the seeds in recipes last year and even if I did, I feel like I would appreciate the reminder that they were from homegrown tomatoes.
• I freeze my tomato paste in 1/2 cup portions in this silicone mold. Normally, I use tomato paste by at least the 1/4 cup, but I’ve got a big family so silicone ice cube trays might be a better fit for you. If you wanted to can your tomato paste, I suggest adapting this method to fit this recipe.
Don’t judge when you read the recipe below.Does preheating the oven really count as a step? The way I see it is pushing a couple buttons, lining the baking sheet, and tossing the tomatoes on there all counts as one step: Prep work. It takes like 2 minutes.
Roasted Cherry Tomato Paste
Print Roasted Cherry Tomato Paste
Ingredients
- fresh cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Completely line a baking sheet with foil or parchment (or use a disposable baking sheet).
- Fill the baking sheet with cherry tomatoes and roast them until they have released all of their liquid, but before they burn (some blackened spots are ok). This will take an hour or so.
- Scrape the tomatoes into a blender and puree them until they are smooth. If your blender struggles with the puree, add a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes or one medium-sized fresh tomato for some extra liquid to help out.
- If you’d like to remove the seeds, run the puree through a foley mill.
- To freeze the tomato paste, divide the puree among a silicone mini mold or ice cube trays.
Enjoy!
Do you have any favorite food preservation hacks?Â
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Great Idea; I can't wait t try this.
That is how I do my tomato sauce, except: I puree olive oil garlic (and basil for Italian sauce) and drizzle it over halved tomatoes in a steamer tray. Toss, then broil for 15 minutes or until thoroughly cooked. Drain, blend and can or freeze. It makes a very low acid sauce that tastes fresh! Many Italians have told me it tastes better than their favorite restaurants. My hubby used to get mouth sores from store bought sauce, but he LOVES this. And he was a spaghetti hater, now a spaghetti lover!
Oh my goodness, that sounds amazing! And so quick & fresh! I think I’m going to try this with some of the last of my tomatoes. (Probably tonight since I tanked at meal planning…again… for today :/ ) Blessings!
This looks great! I followed a recipe from Elliott Homestead for roasting cherry tomatoes and then freezing them. So I did the first few steps. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them. I wish I had seen this earlier. I might have a few lingering tomato plants that I might try this soon:)
I tried freezing them last year like she suggested, but they’re still in the freezer :/ I think I used them once. I have a time of it remembering any miscellaneous things I pop in the freezer. But tomato paste it’s always something I think I have on the shelf and realized too late I don’t so this is a perfect solution. Hope it works out just as well for you Amy!
Hello Quinn. I love this and I’ll be sure to try it when I have 1000s of cherry tomatoes and wonder what I can do with them. Thank you. :- )
They are so abundant aren’t they? I’m always impressed & grateful with how much giving our cherry tomatoes always do. Hope you enjoy the recipe Rhondajean!
Oh, I don’t know why it’s called me RH. It’s Rhondajean here from Down to Earth.
So…they're in the oven right now. I emptied my freezer of 5 bags of grape tomatos from the past 2 summers. Just getting imatient…I must control myself & not remove them from the oven too early. I was tempted to add a few garlic cloves to squeeze into the paste once roasted…but, that wouldn't be a basic tomato paste then, would it. Maybe next time.
I still have some cherry tomatoes sitting in the freezer from last year that I really need to use (tomato season will be here before I know it). I am wondering if this will work with those? Have you tried using frozen tomatoes before?
🙂
I haven’t tried it with frozen ones Renata, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I think it would alter the time in the oven. If you put frozen ones straight into the oven it would take longer, if you thawed them out first & drained away a lot of their liquid it would go more quickly.
Ooh…. that sounds amazing Diane! Hope they turned out well for you!