In which we turn 215kg of tomatoes into delicious bottled tomato pulp
Yesterday we did what has become an annual tradition, turning a bunch of tomatoes into passata, a tomato pulp with the seeds and skins removed. We transformed a huge wall of tomato boxes into two 44 gallon drums of bottled passata in one big 8 hour push.
The process is pretty straightforward:
- Wash the tomatoes
- Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water
- Push the tomatoes through the passata machine, which separates skins and seeds from the pulp
- Push the seeds and skins through the machine two more times
- Bottle the pulp into clean bottles with a leaf or two of basil
- Sterilise the bottles in drums of boiling water
At the end of that, we end up with mountains of shelf-stable tomato pulp. Perfect for when you need a little bottled sunshine in the depths of winter.
Of course the tomato gets everywhere and it's a pretty messy day, but lots of fun and the results are delicious and super useful.