My microwave is for thawing frozen vegetables, heating leftovers and warming milk. It’s normally not used for actual cooking, but for prep work. I have, however, found a use for it that transcends the workhorse station to actual cooking from a recipe, even if it’s an extremely simple one. This recipe is for fresh tomato paste and works best with paste-type tomatoes like Romas. It’s based on the tomato paste recipe in the New Basics Cookbook.
Tomato paste is something that gets used in our house quite a bit for pasta sauces. Normally I just buy a can of it at the grocery store and season the heck out of it to mask the canned taste. This recipe uses a carosel microwave (one with a turntable) and calls for four pounds of fresh tomatoes (not the bouncy, rubbery orangish ones from your local supermarket) and makes one cup of tomato paste.
First, you need to peel the tomatoes, as shown in this primer from allrecipes.com. Seed the tomatoes by squeezing the seeds out of them, then cut them in half and make sure that you got all the seeds out. You should seed them over a trash can, wearing an ex’s t-shirt or something else you don’t care about, because you _will_ get splashed. It helps to mutter _”Brains….BRAINS….” while you’re doing this.
Then, cut the tomatoes in half, then cut the halves into quarters. One tomato should be cut into eight pieces. Once you’re done cutting the tomatoes up (or after you cut each one), put the pieces in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the tomatoes for ten minutes on high, stir them to break the pieces up a bit and keep the heating somewhat even, then nuke ‘em on high for ten more minutes. This is a good time to fix yourself a drink, peel more tomatoes, read a newspaper article… you get the idea.
When you’re done with the second microwaving, take the tomatoes out and run them through a Food Mill, blender or food processor. The cookbook calls for a food mill, but heck, how many people actually have one of those laying around the kitchen?
Once you’re done milling/processing/blending, transfer the tomatoes back into the microwave safe bowl and cook on high for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns. You’ll have at least a cup of quality, fresh tomato paste.
### Leftovers
If you have far too many tomatoes or just don’t need to use all the paste you made, there’s an easy way to save it for another time. Transfer the extra paste into ice cube trays, freeze it, then put the bricks’o'paste in sandwich bags to store in the freezer. When you need tomato paste, just toss a brick into the pot to thaw. No more messing around with knives and spatulas trying to get tomato paste out of a can.