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Tomato Passata

This is a recipe for the purest Italian tomato sauce. It is a flexible building block in your pantry meant to be seasoned further with onion, garlic, olive oil, butter or spices according to how you utilize it. Because of its simplicity, it is all about the tomatoes. Choose only the best!—April McGreger

Ingredients
  

Tomato Passata

  • 20 pounds red, ripe plum or paste tomatoes
  • 1 stalk fresh basil (optional)
  • 2 teaspoons canning salt
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons citric acid, if canning

Instructions
 

  • Wash tomatoes. Remove any large cores from the tomatoes and quarter them. Heat a large, wide stainless steel or ceramic-lined pot over low to medium heat, add quartered tomatoes and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Press the tomato mixture in batches through a food mill into a large bowl. Discard the peels and seeds and return the tomato mixture to your pot.
  • Add the stalk of basil, salt, and, if you plan to can, the citric acid. If you choose to preserve your passata by freezing, then the addition of citric acid is not necessary.
  • Simmer over low heat, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally. Cook until thick and reduced by half, about 1 ½ hours.
  • Remove the stalk of basil, plus any large leaves that may have broken off. You now have passata ready to be used in other recipes or canned or frozen for longer storage.

TO CAN PASSATA

  • Sterilize canning jars and lids in boiling water. Fill with hot passata, leaving a ½-inch of headspace. Run a sterilized chopstick through any visible air bubbles. Wipe rims. Top with 2-piece lids. Process pints for 35 minutes in a boiling water bath.*
  • Turn off heat and remove canner lid. Let jars rest in the canner for 10 minutes before removing, to prevent siphoning.
  • * For elevations above 1,000 feet, canning instructions must be adjusted for altitude.

TO FREEZE PASSATA

  • Pack into freezer-safe containers, leaving a ½-inch headspace for pints and 1-inch headspace for quarts because the sauce will expand as it freezes. Attach lids, label, and freeze for up to six months

TURN YOUR PASSATA INTO TOMATO PASTE

  • Makes 9-10 half pints
  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  • If you are planning to can your tomato paste, make sure you add the citric acid in the original passata recipe before you reduce it to a paste. Divide your finished passata from step 5 above (which you’ve already reduced from your food-milled plum tomatoes) between two large, rimmed baking sheets.
  • Place the baking sheets in the oven. Stir the paste and rotate the baking sheets every half hour so that the paste reduces evenly.
  • Bake until the passata is reduced by half and the mixture is thick enough to mound onto a spoon without sliding off. The paste is done when it is shiny, a deep brick red, and there is no water separating or weeping around the edges.

TO CAN TOMATO PASTE

  • Sterilize half-pint canning jars and lids in boiling water. Fill jars, leaving a ½-inch headspace. Run a sterilized chopstick through any visible air bubbles. Wipe rims. Top with 2-piece lids.
  • Process in a boiling water canner for 45 minutes.* Turn off heat and remove canner lid. Let jars rest in the canner for 10 minutes before removing, to prevent siphoning.
  • * For elevations above 1,000 feet, canning instructions must be adjusted for altitude.

TO FREEZE TOMATO PASTE

  • Pack into freezer-safe containers, leaving a ½-inch headspace for 4- to 8-ounce containers because the sauce will expand as it freezes. Attach lids, label, and freeze for up to nine months. Alternatively, you can freeze the paste in ice cube trays, then transfer the frozen cubes to a freezer bag for up to nine months of freezer storage.