What are You Cooking the Week of September 9, 2018?

[BevM]

Thanks for the well wishes for my son in North Carolina. He lives just a little North of Raleigh so will not suffer the worst of the storm. So far rain and wind have been the worst but I'm sure there will be rain all weekend. Fortunately, he was able to work from home today. This hurricane could have been much worse.

[chocomouse]

Baker Aunt, how did you like the tomato sauce that included the tomato skins? I've been making the sauce that I freeze with the skins on - it saves a tremendous amount of time to not dip in boiling water and peel. But -- I then whiz the sauce with an immersion blender, so the skins completely disappear. Last year I made some pizza sauce with the skins on, and did not puree the sauce; we did not care for the sauce with the pieces of skin in it. The texture is not very pleasant.

[chocomouse]

Baker Aunt, how did you like the tomato sauce that included the tomato skins? I've been making the sauce that I freeze with the skins on - it saves a tremendous amount of time to not dip in boiling water and peel. But -- I then whiz the sauce with an immersion blender, so the skins completely disappear. Last year I made some pizza sauce with the skins on, and did not puree the sauce; we did not care for the sauce with the pieces of skin in it. The texture is not very pleasant.

[Mike Nolan]

My experience has been that an immersion blender still leaves lots of tiny pieces of tomato skin, so I still skin tomatoes before saucing them, either manually or using my Roma Food Strainer.

Putting the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds deactivates an enzyme in tomatoes that causes them to separate when you make sauce. The last time I made sauce I used the Roma 'salsa' screen which removed all the skins and most of the seeds. The sauce had some lumpiness to it, but I actually liked that.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--We liked the tomato sauce with the skins. These are thin-skinned tomatoes. (I'll have to ask my husband what they are.) I tried this after making ratatouille, where the recipe did not call for skinning them, and it was fine. With the sauce I made last week, most of it was used for the spaghetti squash-turkey casserole (like a lasagna without pasta). With the spaghetti squash, the texture of the skins was not noticeable.

If you are looking for a smooth sauce, for a recipe where that is central, then you will need to skin the tomatoes.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[chocomouse]

I prefer a lumpy sauce, too. After using the blender, it seems to be more suited for a creamy soup. And I don't get any pieces of skin after using the blender.

Mike, I've been told the process I use deactivates the enzyme Pectose which causes tomatoes to separate. I cook a couple of tomatoes on high heat, for a minute or so, and then gradually add the remaining tomatoes - carefully stirring, as they do burn easily. That seems to have worked.

[RiversideLen]

I like my tomato sauce smooth. I run the tomatoes through a blender (counter top blender) then strain it through a fine mesh strainer. That removes the seeds and any small lumps. Then I season it and cook it a bit, usually add tomato paste to thicken it and it adds good flavor. I have found that a blender works better then a food processor for this.

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