Tomato Paste Pods

Tomato paste is a must-have in my kitchen, adding depth and richness to countless dishes. Making it at home is a rewarding, low-effort process where patience does most of the work after the initial preparation.

This recipe is beautifully flexible, requiring no precise measurements—just tomatoes, salt, time, and a little patience (definitely worth it). While the paste is simply a reduction of tomatoes, I’ve provided a guide to help you get started. Depending on availability, I process anywhere from 3kg to 10kg of tomatoes at a time, ensuring a supply that lasts well beyond the harvest season.

Ingredients

4.5kg Tomatoes

1-2 tbsp Salt

Method

Cut your tomatoes into halves or quarters and remove as many seeds as possible. You can use your fingers, or I use a teaspoon (whatever works for you)

Place all the tomatoes in a saucepan and boil until the tomatoes have softened and released their juices.

Pass through a food mill or moulie with a fine sieve to remove the skins and any missed seeds.

My grandmother's old moulie. This is where my passion for preserving began, my job when making tomato sauce as a young child.

Return to the saucepan, add salt (use sparingly as the salt level intensifies as the puree reduces), bring to the boil, and reduce to a simmer.

Continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until the puree resembles a thick passata sauce. (You will need to stir more regularly as the puree becomes thicker to prevent sticking and burning)

Cover a roasting tray with baking paper and spread the puree evenly over the tray.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 100°C for 30-40 mins.

Remove from the oven and stir with a spatula, then respread. This is to prevent a thick skin from forming and the edges from burning. The volume of puree will reduce due to evaporation. It is important to maintain an even 1cm depth as the pruee thickens to prevent the edges from burning.

Return the tray to the oven and repeat the process of stirring and respreading about every 30 mins, until the puree is thick and becoming sticky, (approximately 3 hours).

Baking paper eliminates cleaning time

Preserving

You can place your paste in a jar and use it immediately or preserve it in jars by water bathing for 15 minutes.

My preferred option is to make tomato paste pods and place them in the freezer, where they are ready to add to any dish as required.

To complete this process, I use a cookie scoop and place dollops on a tray and snap freeze overnight. You could alternatively use an ice cube tray.

Once frozen, I place the individual pods into a container in the freezer, where they are ready for use. Each pod is about 1 tbsp of tomato paste. Next batch, I will try spreading into a plastic storage container and cutting into cubes after the overnight freeze. This will hopefully permit more efficient packing for freezer storage.

44 servings in total