How to give canned tomatoes extra flavor
A pantry without canned tomatoes isn’t a good pantry. There, I said it. They don’t cost much, and you can make a good pasta sauce with them in no time. Almost as delicious as fresh tomatoes, but with this trick you won’t be able to taste the difference at all.
When tomatoes are canned, they are submerged in tomato juice, canned and then cooked. This makes them safe to eat and means they will keep more or less forever, but flavor isn’t taken into consideration. The sugars haven’t developed optimally yet, which makes the flavor watery. Fortunately, there’s a great tip for making the tomatoes extra delicious.
Caramelize the tomatoes
Pour the contents of the can into a colander and let them drain. Make sure to place the colander over a bowl so you can save the liquid. The contents of the colander then go into the pan; a cast-iron Dutch oven works best for this. Heating the tomatoes causes the water to evaporate and the tomatoes to caramelize. Two processes that give your tomatoes more flavor. Caramelization brings out the tomato’s natural sugars and acids even more.
Reduce the liquid
Next, add the reserved liquid to the pan with the tomatoes and let it reduce. “Why did I just separate the tomatoes from the liquid?” I hear you thinking. If you skip that step, the tomatoes will never caramelize as well as they do when the liquid is still in the pan. It may sound a little complicated, but it only takes ten minutes of work, and your tomatoes will genuinely taste a hundred times better. Now you’re ready to make your pasta sauce, pizza sauce or stew, simply as you normally would. Enjoy!
Also read:
