About Tomato Paste
Properly stocking a kitchen pantry requires a basic inventory of items. This might include such items as flour, sugar, oil and tomato paste. Tomato paste can be used in many recipes that require tomato flavoring, as a substitute for tomato sauce, or in recipes that specifically call for tomato paste. Does this Spark an idea?
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Identification
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Tomato paste is a heavy paste made from tomatoes. After the tomatoes are ripened, the skin and seeds are removed. A sauce is made from the tomatoes, and then the sauce is dried to remove some of the moisture, condensing the liquid and transforming it into a thicker and heavier paste. Tomato paste is often used to make Italian sauces.
Function
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Used often as a base for making tomato juice, ketchup and as an ingredient for some recipes and sauces, such as spaghetti sauce, tomato paste can be purchased in squeeze tubes and in small cans. Tomato paste can also be diluted with water and substituted for tomato sauce in recipes that call for tomato sauce.
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Benefits
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Tomato paste is ideal for recipes that require a deep tomato flavor, or for thick tomato base sauces. It's an ideal ingredient when making cream of tomato soup or Bolognese sauce. Tomato paste that comes in squeeze tubes is typically more concentrated or thicker than canned tomato paste.
Size
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Because tomato paste is made by condensing the tomatoes several times during the process, one recipe begins with 4 dozen large tomatoes but produces less than 5 pints of tomato paste. Some varieties of tomatoes are meatier and less juicy than other types, and are better suited to make tomato paste. If using juicy tomatoes, it will require more tomatoes to make tomato paste.
History
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Originally tomato paste was made by spreading a reduced tomato sauce over wooden boards and leaving them in the sun. After the sauce thickened sufficiently it was scraped up into a soft ball of thick tomato paste. In some parts of Italy tomato paste is still made this way. Tomato paste was made in homes in Italy and the Mediterranean before it was commercially produced.
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Resources
- Photo Credit A. Johnson
