There is nothing tastier and healthier than homemade preparations. By preparing a few jars of tomato puree, you can provide your family with a tasty, healthy product for the whole winter that compares favorably with its industrial counterparts. This preparation will be useful to any housewife for preparing soup, sauces, meat dishes, as well as other culinary delights.
Features of preparing tomato puree for the winter
In order for the preparation for the winter to turn out tasty and retain the maximum of vitamins, you need to know some subtleties:
- There are two ways to make tomato paste: freezing and canning. The first method is freezing chopped tomato pulp. The second is preparing puree in the form of canned food.
- It is very important to use sterilized containers for canning. To seal the jars, well-boiled metal lids are used to ensure complete tightness.
- The preparation can be made with sugar, salt, or without them. The method of storing tomato puree will depend on this.
Recipe Ingredients Required
The main ingredient of the preparation is, of course, tomatoes. You should choose meaty rather than watery vegetables, otherwise the puree may turn out runny.
It is important that the tomatoes are ripe, or better yet overripe, but in no case spoiled.
Depending on the recipe, other products may be needed: salt, sugar, spices (to taste).
Preparation of raw materials
Selected tomatoes are thoroughly washed and dried. In order for the puree to be smooth, pleasant in appearance and taste, the tomatoes are peeled before cooking. This is done like this: the tomatoes are carefully cut crosswise at the point where the stalk is attached, and placed in boiling water for 2 minutes. After this, remove with a slotted spoon and easily remove the skin.
Then the fruits are crushed, finely chopped or rubbed through a sieve. The latter method allows you to get rid of the seeds, as well as the remaining skin.
Heat treatment
Aluminum cookware is not used for heat treatment of tomatoes. A pan made of glass, stainless steel or enameled is suitable.
Place the prepared tomatoes in a saucepan and place on the fire.After boiling, cook without a lid for about 20 minutes. The thickness of the tomato puree will depend on the boiling time. The finished paste is poured onto a sieve and allowed to stand.
How to make tomato puree at home?
Making tomato puree at home is very easy. Here are a few recipes for this healthy preparation.
Classic recipe
The classic recipe for making tomato puree is as follows (to get 3 liters you need 4 kg of tomatoes):
- Prepare vegetables.
- Cut them into large slices.
- Grind the pulp using a meat grinder or blender. To obtain an even more delicate consistency, rub the resulting mass through a sieve.
- Prepare jars and lids.
- Place the chopped tomatoes in a saucepan, add salt (for 4 kg of tomatoes - 40 grams of salt). If the puree is prepared without salt, there is no need to add it.
- Carry out heat treatment.
- Pour the finished mixture into jars and roll them up.
- Turn the jars over, cover with a blanket, and leave for a day.
If desired, you can add sugar. In this case, for 4 kg of tomato you need to take 30 g of sugar and salt, and add them to the pureed mass before it is put on the fire.
To give a more expressive taste, add parsley, basil or other dried herbs.
Seasonings are added after boiling the pureed tomato mass.
Option without sterilization
There is another way to prepare pasta that does not require sterilization of the container: the prepared tomato puree is poured into small molds and frozen. Frozen pieces are placed in plastic bags and stored in the freezer compartment.
If you don’t have molds, you can freeze the finished pasta in bags, spreading it out in the form of a flat cake. It will break off easily when used.
You can prepare this tomato paste without using a pan, but simply by baking the tomatoes in the oven. The tomatoes are cut into several parts, placed on a baking sheet with the flesh facing up and baked in the oven for 1-1.5 hours at 180 C. If you decide to use salt or spices, they are added on top.
The resulting sun-dried tomatoes are cooled, then crushed in a blender and rubbed through a sieve. The resulting paste is poured into molds or bags.
With pepper
To obtain 5 liters of tomato puree with pepper you will need:
- 4.2 kg tomato;
- 4 kg of fresh bell pepper;
- 20 grams each of allspice and black pepper, you can add a bay leaf.
Preparation:
- The pepper is washed, placed in calcined oil for half a minute, and then doused with cold water. Remove the skin, seeds and stalks. You don’t have to remove the skin, then the fruits need to be immersed in boiling water for 3 minutes.
- Prepare tomato puree.
- Place spices at the bottom of the prepared jars, pour in a little puree, and then add chopped peppers. All this is again poured with hot tomato puree.
- Take a pan with hot water, place the jars in and sterilize for 40-50 minutes.
- The jars are rolled up, turned over and cooled.
How to store workpieces?
If sugar and salt are not added, the product can only be stored in a cool place.
Puree prepared with salt is easily stored even at room temperature. A refrigerator should be used to store opened cans, regardless of the cooking method.
If you close the opened container with a vacuum lid and pump out the air using a special pump, you can store the paste without a refrigerator - in a dark, cool place.
