Easy Homemade Tomato Paste – A Stovetop And Oven Method

Step-by-step easy homemade tomato paste recipe that is made from scratch and results in a thick and smooth concentrated tomato flavor.

One of the most common ways to preserve tomatoes at home is to turn them into a rich tomato sauce. However, what if you have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, purchased a ton on sale at a local farmer’s market, or just want to enjoy even more concentrated tomato flavor in your recipes? That’s where making an easy homemade tomato paste comes into play.

Tomato paste is a thick, rich concentrate of tomatoes that have been cooked down for hours to remove most of the water. It adds a rich, savory flavor to foods as well as helps to thicken recipes that benefit from tomato flavors. Think stews, soups, sauces, and more.

This recipe uses both your stovetop to quickly remove as much of the water as possible, as well as your oven. The result is a thick and smooth tomato-packed paste that has so much more flavor compared to store-bought pastes.

As an added benefit, you can freeze and save it in whatever quantity you use most often. Then, when a recipe calls for tomato paste, you simply pull out the required amount from your freezer, and you get to enjoy those fresh, summer flavors all year long – no wasting half a can of store-bought paste like you might normally do!

Benefits Of Homemade Tomato Paste

• It’s a great way to use up a large quantity of tomatoes at one time.
• You get concentrated tomato flavor that is easy to store and takes up little room.
• Use whatever types of tomatoes you have available.
• Take advantage of bumper crops, grocery store sales, or local farmer’s market tomatoes.
• Allows you to preserve tomatoes for long-term storage and use.
• Make and freeze in whatever quantity you use most often.
• No opening up a can of tomato paste only to use a small amount while the rest goes to waste.
• Only one ingredient: tomatoes!

Commonly Asked Questions

What Is Tomato Paste? Tomato paste is concentrated tomatoes. The tomatoes are cooked down until they are nice and soft. After several hours, the thick sauce is ready to be spread on a baking sheet to bake and remove as much of the moisture as possible. The result is a thick and rich tomato paste that can be used to thicken and season recipes.

Why Make Tomato Paste Homemade? Making homemade tomato paste is a great way to add body and tomato flavor to soups, sauces, stews, and other recipes. It also uses up a ton of tomatoes, and the result is an easy-to-store product.

Best Tomatoes To Use To Make Tomato Paste? You can use any varieties of tomatoes you have in your garden. However, the best ones to use are paste tomatoes. These tomatoes have a low moisture content, few seeds, and lots of flesh. It’s best not to use a ton of tomatoes like heirlooms that are full of liquid with lots of seeds simply because it will take you forever to cook down. Some of my favorite paste tomato varieties are San Marzano, Amish Paste, and Roma tomatoes.

How To Store The Tomato Paste? You can store the tomato paste in an enclosed container in your refrigerator for up to a month. However, I prefer to freeze it. It will be good for at least a year or more. You don’t even need to thaw it before using it in cooked dishes.

Equipment Needed

For the most part, you need basic kitchen equipment. Specifically, you need a large non-reactive stock pot with a heavy bottom for cooking down the tomatoes. Then you are going to need an oven-safe baking dish. I used my Pyrex Glass Baking Dishes (Product Link). A baking sheet with sides can also work well.

Next is either a high-powered blender or an immersion blender. I like to use the immersion blender because: A) It’s fewer dishes and B) I don’t have to transfer the tomatoes from one container to another, preventing me from making a huge mess!

Then you will need a freezer-safe container or bag to store the finished product in. I like to use a freezer-safe Ziploc bag so I can easily grab what I need, reseal it, and go.

Instructions For Easy Homemade Tomato Paste

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe, including exact measurements and amounts. You can also print out the instructions. I go into a bit more detail about the recipe here first, just in case you need it.

The first step is to wash all of your tomatoes. Choose blemish-free tomatoes and cut away the stem end.

With this recipe, there is no need to peel the tomatoes first. The peels will be blended up with the flesh, and you won’t even know they are there. However, remove as many of the seeds as possible. Paste tomatoes can easily be squeezed to remove most of the seeds. It’s ok if there are still a few left behind.

First Part: The Stovetop

Place the tomatoes in a large stock pot that can handle cooking acidic foods. Avoid using bare copper, bare cast iron, or uncoated aluminum pots since these can cause a chemical reaction that can ruin your tomato paste.

Cook the tomatoes over medium heat (or whatever is needed to maintain a low boil). This part of the process will take several hours. Don’t just set the sauce on the stove and forget it, though. Stir the tomatoes every 20 minutes or so to prevent them from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan.

The goal here is to reduce the amount of liquid by about half. (You can use the tomatoes left on the sides of the pan as your guide.) The amount of time this takes will depend on the types of tomatoes you used, their moisture content, and how hot you are cooking them at. Expect it to take several hours.

Once the liquid is reduced, allow the tomatoes to cool. You don’t want to blend hot ingredients because they can easily splash and cause burns if you aren’t super careful. (Speaking from personal experience here!)

Second Part: The Oven

Now, it’s time to blend up the tomatoes into a smooth sauce. You can do this in batches by using a high-powered blender or food processor, or you can use an immersion blender. With either method, the goal is to remove any chunks, blend up the peels, and make the tomatoes nice and creamy.

Spread the blended tomatoes into your baking pan. Keep it to one inch thick or less. Otherwise, you will struggle to get it to cook down enough. If needed, separate the blended tomatoes between two pans.

Place the pans inside an oven set to 250º Fahrenheit. Cook the tomato paste for an hour. After the hour is up, remove the pan and give the tomatoes a good stir. The edges will cook faster than the center, so make sure to mix it all around. The paste will still be fairly runny at this point, so repeat the process.

Continue Cooking

Cook the paste for another hour and repeat until you get the thick consistency you want. Instead of stirring every hour, switch to doing it every half hour to prevent burning. Scrape off the sides of the dish to prevent those from burning. (Something I didn’t do very well.) The tomatoes will darken as they cook down.

The oven part of the process will likely take 3 to 4 hours, but it can take more. Again, this depends on the thickness of the tomatoes in the pan, how much moisture was left in them, etc. You can see how thick the tomato paste is when I scrape the dish. That’s the consistency you are looking for.

Allow the tomato paste to cool completely. Then, store it in the quantities you prefer. I like to use either a cookie scoop or those 1 Tbsp Silicone Freezer Molds (Product Link). Flash freeze the paste. Once it is solid, you can remove it and store it all in larger Ziploc containers or bags. Pull and use what you need for your recipes; no need to thaw for cooked dishes.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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