I've used tomato paste from a tube. Can't remember the brand; no tube in the fridge right now. However, when I buy a can, I put 1 tablespoon lumps on squares of wax paper, freeze them, and then pack them into a small freezer bag. No fuss, no muss, no waste.
taxy, that reminds me of the usage of the word prawn. Thanks for the tomato paste info.
Has anyone bought a good tomato paste in a tube? I've always bought those little cans, but very rarely need all of it. The remainder often gets saved, takes up space, then gets chucked out.
There is a big difference in flavor. I make tomato paste using Roma tomatoes from our garden, reducing sauce to a thick paste in a low oven. Cooking tomatoes for a couple of hours, evaporating the water, brings out the sweetness in the fruit. Rehydrating the paste results in a sweeter sauce than purée.Tomato paste is traditionally made in Southern Italy by drying tomato purée in the sun, so I´d say that paste (that which comes in little tubes) has a more intense tomato flavour. Tomato purée is not as thick; I buy mine in tins or jars. And the purée is much thicker than the passata, which is simply tomatoes which have been passed through a sieve to remove seeds and skin.
So is there a big difference in taste? Well I think a lot of people would be pushed to tell the difference between a tomato sauce made with paste and one made with purée.
I keep and use Amore Sun Dried Tomato Paste. A 2.8 oz tube lasts me a while.
Ross
taxy, that reminds me of the usage of the word prawn. Thanks for the tomato paste info.
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You think the confusion in the usage of the word prawn is bad, how about "scampi"? To me a scampi is a "Norwegian lobster", not a shrimp. It's not confusing in a resto here, because all the menus have French and usually English. In French, the critter I think of as scampi is a lagoustine. But, I've never seen or heard the word scampi used by itself to describe something made with shrimp. I think I have heard "shrimp scampi" to describe a dish.
OH, yes. If you say scampi here, most people would think of some protein, almost always shrimp, in a butter and garlic sauce. It's on menus as Shrimp Scampi. I've seen Chicken Scampi, or "in a scampi sauce" as well.
I guess you could cover 2 bases with Scampi Scampi. Or Prawn Scampi.