I’m at Bristol airport having a drink before I board my flight to Rome, Italy. I’ve never been to Rome before and I am really excited!!!  My stomach’s even more excited and keeps growling in anticipation of all the carbi-licious food.

In the next day or so, I am going to post about Penne Ala Vodka which I make using a tomato concasse. However, I wanted to share the steps for a concasse in a separate post.

What is tomato Concasse? It’s when a tomato has been peeled, seeded, and chopped to certain specifications.

How to make a tomato Concasse

5 medium sized tomatoes will make about 400ml pureed tomato concasse

Begin by coring the stem

Score the bottom. This will allow for the skin to loosen and easily peel

Add a pinch of salt to water and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes (try selecting ones of the same ripeness)

Let cook for 20 seconds to 1 minute or till they begin to peel

Remove the ones that have begun to peel and soak in an ice bath. Allow more time for those tomatoes that haven’t yet begun to peel.

Soaking in a ice bath will shock the tomatoes helping to release the skin as well as stop cooking them. It will also make it easy for you to handle them, now that they are not hot.

Cut in half at the equator. It’s important to do so, because it ensures you are getting all the seeds out of the membranes. If you slice the tomato the other way around you will not see all the membranes and thus miss some of the seeds. The reason behind removing the skin is because it’s hard to digest, especially with fresh thicker skinned tomatoes. Removing the seeds minimizes the bitterness. In any case, many people choose not to remove the seeds because it’s an extra step. It really doesn’t take that long to remove the seeds, folks. An extra 2 minutes, if that. Honestly!  (That’s if you are working with 6 or 7 tomatoes)

Spoon out the seeds and then chop the tomatoes to desired specification (small, medium or large chop)

The tomato remaining is the tomato concasse and the seeds and membranes to the right are discarded

The next step is optional. You can keep the tomatoes as they are (concasse) and add to any tomato based sauce or you can puree (Passata) as below. You can refrigerate for a couple of days till ready for use.

Come back soon and I’ll show you how to use this concasse to make Penne Ala Vodka! Even better yet, just sign up to receive the next post directly to your email.