Make Your Own Tomato Paste the Easy Way

You can make homemade tomato paste by cooking down the liquid from fresh tomatoes until you get the consistency of paste, then process the results in canning jars. But here’s a much easier way to make your own tomato paste.

My husband and I grow tomatoes in our garden, and each summer we can lots of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato juice. However, we could never get into canning tomato paste because of the time involved in first cooking down the tomatoes, plus the resulting increase in humidity during Tennessee’s already steamy summer days. But since we discovered it can be made from dehydrated tomatoes, we are finally enjoying tomato paste made from our own homegrown tomatoes.

First: Grow the Tomatoes

The first step is to grow the tomatoes. In early April, about 6 to 8 weeks before our typical last spring frost, we start tomato seeds in pots under grow lights. Two weeks after our usual last frost date the seedlings are ready to transplant outdoors. If the weather is running on the cool side that year, we wait another week or two while things warm up.

Over the years we have grown many different tomato varieties, which we have gradually pared down to our three favorites. For canning or dehydrating, Amish paste tomatoes are by far the best, because they’re large and meaty. Weighing 8 ounces or more, they’re also good for slicing into sandwiches and salads.

On the other hand, Amish paste isn’t particularly prolific or persistent, so we also grow Rutgers Original (which can weigh up to 8 ounces) and Box Car Willie (which can grow to a whopping 10 ounces). Although these two tomatoes are somewhat similar, we grow both because some years one produces better than the other.

Second: Dry the Tomatoes

The next step is to dry the fresh-picked tomatoes, which we accomplish in our Excalibur dehydrator. Some people first remove the skins and seeds. We don’t, because that also removes much of the flavor and nutritional value. We simply cut the washed and stemmed tomatoes into 1/4-inch slices.

If we’re drying only tomatoes, we set the dehydrator at 155ºF. If we dry other things at the same time, we set it at 135ºF and leave them in a little longer. When the tomatoes are completely dry and brittle, we vacuum seal them in wide mouth one-pint canning jars using a Foodsaver 2-in-1. Each pound of fresh tomatoes shrivels down to about one ounce.

Third: Make Tomato Paste

One wide mouth pint jar of dried tomatoes makes the approximate equivalent of a 6 ounce can of tomato paste. When we need tomato paste, we use a Blendtec food processor to grind the dried tomatoes into a powder. Add an equal amount of water by volume and — voila! — tomato paste!

Sometimes we need less than 6 ounces of paste, in which case we grind what we need and then reseal the jar. The reason we don’t grind the dried tomatoes until we need them is because the powder can get packed and lumpy during storage.

One of the things we like about this homemade tomato paste, compared to store bought, is that it includes all the nutrients from whole tomatoes. Another is that it contains no added salt. Besides, you can’t beat the flavor.

Okay, so I hear you say it takes a lot of expensive appliances to make a little tomato paste. To which I say: Anybody who grows and preserves food for home use has similar appliances that have many other purposes besides making tomato paste the easy way.