Tomato Paste

There's really good ready-made tomato paste and passata options on the market, so there's really no need to make your own.

But if you feel like spending some time in the kitchen on something that you can do without thinking too much about, or if - for some reason - you've got an abundance of tomatoes, then this is a reasonable project to get your teeth into.

This is a base recipe that you can play around with depending on what produce and ingredients you've got at hand, and the flavours you want to focus on.

I tend to keep mine all fairly loose and rustic, so that it comes out more like a roast tomato pesto as opposed to a commercially produced tomato paste.

Store it in jars in the fridge and add it to everything.

Ingredients

• About 4kg tomatoes - you want them ripe and full of flavour.
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 sprigs fresh oregano, washed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 tabespoons of lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, extra

Method

• Wash the tomatoes, roughly chop them.
• Place the tomato, oil and oregano in a large saucepan with water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes or until tomato is tender and skin has separated from flesh. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Remove and discard oregano.
• Preheat oven to 140C.
• Push tomato mixture through a fine sieve over a large bowl. Discard seeds and skin. Add salt and lemon juice to tomato puree. Stir well to combine. Divide mixture between 2 shallow baking trays with sides.
• Bake for about 3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes - until tomato puree becomes a thick, reddish-brown paste and liquid has evaporated. Allow to cool.
• Spoon into storage jars. Add extra oil on top of paste in jar.
• Store in fridge.