Roasted Tomatoes — Next Level Stuff
Passata and Ketchup Recipe
For really full-on tomato intensity, slow roasting is the only way to go. Once roasted, they can be preserved by bottling or freezing for when you next need a deeply rich tomato hit in your cooking.
So here are a couple of my favorite ways of using tomatoes, so they can be on hand and really useful in your kitchen when the tomato harvest has long passed.
The first recipe is Passata — the illustrious cousin of the canned tomato.
Passata is just great because you do the ‘hard work’ now to lock in the flavor, so when you next need a garlicky, herb infused tomato sauce to put on pasta or a pizza base — your passata will be on hand and will need very little adding to it if anything at all.
Psst…and when I say ‘hard work’ — there’s no hard work — it’s so simple.
The second recipe is Ketchup. Why? Well I’m British and I love it, but also it’s a great way to use the passata and have another store cupboard ingredient made from your tomatoes.
Passata
Makes about 1lt
This is proper ‘no fuss’ cooking.
Preheat your oven to 180⁰C/Gas mark 4. Prepare the following ingredients as described and put everything into a large baking tray. Give it all a good whirl around (I just use my hands), until everything has been coated by the oil. Create a single layer of ingredients on the bottom of the baking tray 1 tomato deep. If they are a bit stacked on top of each other that’s okay — but if it’s starting to look like it’s 2 or 3 tomatoes deep, you’ll need a bigger tray as they will stew more than roast in the cooking process and you’ll lose that roasted intensity.
- 2kg (4.4lbs) ripe tomatoes halved
- 200g (7oz) shallots, peeled and sliced (about 1cm in thickness)
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly
- 2 or 3 sprigs each of rosemary, thyme, basil or oregano
- 1tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 1tsp light brown muscovado sugar
- 50ml olive oil or sunflower
Roast for about an hour, until everything is looking well broken down, soft to touch, and will break up easily under the back of a spoon.
Spoon the roasted mixture into a food mill and work it through into a bowl. If you don’t have a food mill, a sieve and the back of a wooden spoon will work just fine. The result will be a smooth passata sauce which you can bottle for the store cupboard, using sterilized bottles, or freeze.
If you’ve got too much passata to handle, you might give the next recipe a go, and to be fair, who doesn’t love a good ketchup?
Ketchup
Makes 500 to 600ml
The passata makes an excellent base for a delicious homemade ketchup. It comes out a bit darker than the shop-bought stuff — but it tastes way better!
For this you’ll need:
- 1lt of passata
- 100ml of cider vinegar
- 50ml lemon juice
- 1 heaped tsp celery Salt
- 1 heaped tsp mustard powder
- 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 100g (3.5oz) demerara sugar
- 1tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)
Put all the ingredients apart from the sugar into a heavy-based saucepan. Sir over medium heat until it starts to simmer. Add the sugar and simmer for 25 -30 minutes until the sauce is reduced, thick but pour-able is what we’re after.
Once it’s at the thick but pour-able stage, remove from the heat and follow the steps to preserving the ketchup in sterilized bottles. Store in a cool dry place for up to a year. Keep refrigerated once opened and used within 4 weeks.
