Every summer, an enormous quantity of tomatoes grow in our garden, from several different varieties. We eat plenty of them, but because there are so many, we began looking for different ways to preserve the wonderful tomatoes we had picked.
Bar Cohen, one of our team members, who also grew and picked the tomatoes, heard about a special tomato sauce made by a traditional method in Sicily and wanted to try it.
The process is long, but the result is very tasty.
This is a good process to try if you have a balcony with direct sun or a sunny yard. The sun helps with the drying, and during the process liquid drips down to the ground.
Safety note: This is a sun-dried, refrigerated tomato concentrate, not a shelf-stable preserve. Keep it refrigerated, use clean utensils when taking from the jar, and discard it if you see mold, bubbling, off smells, or any other sign of spoilage.
Ingredients:
- 11 lb tomatoes (5 kg)
- 3 large onions
- 1 bunch basil leaves
- Slow juicer or large strainer
- Wooden board
- Olive oil, for covering the finished concentrate
- Salt, optional, for the leftover solids
Instructions:
- Halve the tomatoes and cut the onions into quarters.
- Transfer them to a pot and add the basil leaves.
- Cook over medium heat.
- Every few minutes, stir well from the bottom of the pot.
- Cook until all the vegetables soften and break down.
- If you have a slow juicer, pass the mixture through it twice. If you do not have one, transfer the mixture to a strainer and strain it twice.
- The solids left from juicing or straining can be turned into a spread: season with salt and blend until smooth.
- Pour the liquid released from the mixture onto a wooden board set on legs or chairs at a slight angle.
- Use a spoon to make channels lengthwise and crosswise through the tomato mixture on the board, so the released liquid can collect in them and dry.
- Every 60 to 90 minutes, gather the mixture with a spatula and repeat the spreading and channeling steps until the sun sets.
- At sunset, gather the mixture into a jar and refrigerate.
- The next day, repeat the spreading and channeling process in the same way.
- You can repeat the process for one more day if you want a thicker concentrate.
- Transfer the concentrate to a jar, pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top, close the jar, and refrigerate.
