Recipe: Salsa de tomate
I wrote this recipe ages ago, and we rather forgot to post it. However, we have just made a new batch and have tweaked the recipe a little…
In this most recent lockdown, as we have been placed in the strictest tier and have been closed as a municipality, we decided to use Mercadona’s online shopping website. It is not the most user-friendly site, as there are no images of the products, just a list of all items. The advantage is that it is very easy to get a delivery slot, normally on the day after placing the order.
Last week, I made my order and for some reason, instead of having a bag of 8 individual pear tomatoes delivered, we got 8 boxes of the things - going on for 100 tomatoes! Of course, it made complete sense to make Tomate Frito, or salsa de tomate, a variation of a recipe by the celebrated Spanish chef Andoni Luis Aduriz. Basically, it is a sort of tomato sauce that can be stored away and used whenever you want to add flavour to dishes.
RECIPE: SALSA DE TOMATE
Ingredients - you can multiple these quantities if you have LOTS of tomatoes!
2kg tasty, ripe tomatoes. We use ripe plum/pear tomatoes
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 - 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
7 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, sweet paprika and pepper for seasoning
Sterilised storage jars
Method
Wash the tomatoes and cut into quarters or sixths, removing the core at the top.
Chop the onion, garlic and red and green peppers; they don’t have to be too fine.
Place a large pan on a medium heat and add the oil, onion, garlic and pepper, stir then gently cook for about 5/6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and season well with salt, pepper and about half-teaspoon of sweet paprika.
You then need to gently cook these ingredients for 1 - 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent any sticking. I cook the mix for an hour with the lid on, but remove the lid for the last 30 minutes to reduce the sauce; the consistency wants to be like a thick jam. If there is a lot of liquid, keep simmering to reduce it for a further 20 - 30 minutes. Blend the sauce in the pan with a hand blender to create a reasonably smooth mix; don’t over-liquidise.
Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning, and then ladle into the sterilised jars.
This sauce is a delicious base for so many dishes; I’m using some of our latest batch in a Shepherd’s Pie, but it’s great in pasta sauces or on a pizza base.
