What to Do with Leftover Tomato Paste

Published on Thursday, March 19, 2009, by CHOW Video Team / Edit Post

What to Do with Leftover Tomato Paste

Open cans of tomato paste are a modern scourge for CHOW Kitchen Editorial Assistant Amy Wisniewski. She’s solution-oriented, though: She portions out and freezes the leftovers, then defrosts the tablespoon-size blobs the next time she needs some tomato paste.

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  • as7938, I would recommend no longer than a few weeks- it will turn into a freezer-bitten dessicated little lump of tasteless matter if stored any longer.

    Amy Wisniewski
    CHOW Assoc. Food Editor

  • How long do you recomend keeping the frozen balls?

  • I kinda like eating the leftovers with a spoon. Lots of lycopene, and salivary-gland-spasm-inducing concentrated flavor.

  • The tubes of imported Italian tomato paste are usually more concentrated and of better quality than the domestic US tomato paste in cans, and there's no waste, so I like the tubes, unless I need a lot of tomato paste for some particular dish.

  • to wheatster,
    the stuff in the tube costs about 5 times what a can costs, so it kind of defeats the purpose.

  • Great idea! And you get such cute little tomato paste turds. ;-) But I still prefer the tubes.

  • you can also buy tomato paste by the tube, which eliminates the problem altogether!

  • Val, I'll go you one better. I do basically the same thing with the sandwich bag, but once I have all of the air out and the bag zipped, I mash it to distribute the paste in one layer throughout the bag, then I fold it into quarters before freezing. That basically turns it into a "tomato paste Hershey bar," and I can break off as many quarters as I want. With larger amounts of paste, I use a...+READ

    Val, I'll go you one better. I do basically the same thing with the sandwich bag, but once I have all of the air out and the bag zipped, I mash it to distribute the paste in one layer throughout the bag, then I fold it into quarters before freezing. That basically turns it into a "tomato paste Hershey bar," and I can break off as many quarters as I want. With larger amounts of paste, I use a larger bag, then score it by running my fingers across the bag before freezing.-COLLAPSE

  • Yes, freeze it...if you don't want to deal with the measuring in blobs-freezing step, you can scrape the entire remainder of the can into a sandwich size plastic baggie..smoosh to flatten..seal and freeze the whole damned thing...it's so easy to cut off whatever you need from the large piece for your next recipe.

  • Brilliant. Now I don't have to scrape off the black 'protective coating' that usually rests on the open can of paste that's been in the fridge for 3 months.