The biggest issue I’ve had with making tomato sauces is the time it takes to cook down to a useable mixture. We grow mainly San Marzano or Romas for canning and yet despite being paste tomatoes there is still what seems like gallons of excess water in each 7 quart batch. Few culinary mishaps are more heartbreaking than to spend all day canning and come back to a fully separated , half water filled jar the next morning.
We grow a LOT of tomatoes. If left unsupervised, I’ve been known to install 40++ plants for the season. Earlier this year as I contemplated another season of harvesting and all the times I’ve nearly burned (aka really burned) a batch of pasta or pizza sauce trying to get it to thicken up, inspiration struck me. Why can’t it be drained before the cooking??
I decided to give it a whirl and if it failed, well, I would pour everything back into the bowl with no one the wiser. Oh my goodness did it work.
In the last year or so, I have completely overhauled my kitchen. New plates, new pots and pans, and I just finished painting the cabinets this week. A new stainless colander set also happened to be one of the purchases I made in finding new joy in the kitchen.
This is the absolute best trick and by far my brightest moment of the canning season. Here are my steps for drawing gazillions of gallons of excess water from your tomatoes:
- Run tomatoes through your food mill (I prefer the kitchenaid mixer attachment).
- Pour tomatoes into colander with bowl beneath to catch the extra water. I’ve let the tomatoes drain for several hours to as long as overnight in the fridge.
- LEAVE IT ALONE. No stirring, no scraping across the bottom of the colander with a spoon. Leave it. I’ve not tried to stir during the draining but I’m certain the good stuff would drain out and ruin all the fun.
- That’s it. The end! You are left with a lovely thick tomato puree that can be processed however pleases you. Pasta sauce, pizza sauce, tomato paste. The works. Cook time is cut to a fraction and no more burnt sauce!!
Enjoy!
Sourwood Hill 