leftover tomato paste

[Michelly]

Tomato paste is one of the least called-for things in my pantry, but once in a while, I get a recipe that needs it. And I know it comes in tubes; believe me, when I finally use up the two or three 6 oz. cans I have, I will buy the tubes.
In the meantime, I made my mom's marinara sauce which calls for 2 T tomato paste, so I have the remainder in my fridge where it will make its way slowly to the back only to be found, all dried up and black, whenever I clean the fridge next. Granted it's not the most expensive thing to end up throwing away, but if anyone has any suggestions as to how to use it up (without having to make more marinara sauce), I'd be grateful.

[cimui]

If you don't want to freeze it or toss it into soup, how about bloody Marys? Plenty of recipes call for using tomato paste.

[EWSflash]

I usually eat it with a spoon. It's rich and bright and sweet and tart and fabulous tasting and has gobs of lycopene.

But that's just me.

[FoodFuser]

Not just you, EWS.

After using the normal 2 TBS for the recipe, I grab a sheet of plastic wrap and freeze a glop for the next time.

Then I make juice. I have a saved plastic lid fron a baking powder can that rests in a special place, and add water to the can, then cover the 6 ounce can with finger pressure and shake and agitate, and decant to a glass. Rinse and repeat. Add seasonings (think bloody mary mix) and rinse repeat again in the can until the can is clean and the glass has tomato juice reconstituted at a 3 0r 4 to 1 ratio. Rinse the plastic lid and return to special place, recycle the contadina can, and drink the flavorful lycopenes.

Advantage is that you can lower the sodium content: canned tomato juice is extremely high in salt.

[thatchairlady]

I dig it outta can onto waxed paper and shape into a log. Into freezer till hard then cut into pieces (maybe a TBSP) and then into zip freezer bag or air-tight container.

[greygarious]

That seems like a lot of extra fuss, when you can just flatten it all to fill a freezer bag, then simply break off as much as you need, as noted upthread.

[Michelly]

I never thought of freezing the stuff!
Thanks, everyone!

[Caroline1]

I put my unused tomato paste in a zip-lock sandwich bag, squish all of the air our of the bag, spread the tomato paste into an even layer throughout the closed bag, then divide it into four sections by running my finger across the bag top to bottom, side to side. I then fold along these marks and pop the bag into the freezer. Depending on how much tomato paste you had left, this makes controllable portions with minimum mess or cleanup when you've used it all. One easy step.

[Midlife]

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more tomato paste turning black in the can in my fridge! How simple............. duh!

[Caroline1]

Then why did it take me forty years to figure it out? Oh! Wait a minute! Forty years ago there were no zip-lock bags! '-)

[Kajikit]

That's a great idea! I've frozen it in dollops on a tray (works great but you have to make room in the freezer to sit the tray...) and tried icecube trays (it's hard to get the tomato paste out again) and small tupperware containers (work great but they tend to fall out of the freezer and smash.) Empty yoghurt containers are also a good size for tomato paste. I stack them in the door of the fridge so I don't lose them.

[cimui]

That's a pretty cool trick, Caroline1. And nice to see you back, btw.

[LindaWhit]

No need to buy the much more expensive tubes. As OCEllen said - freeze it. Either use an ice cube tray as others have mentioned, or portion them out into small Tupperware (I use their Midget containers - 2 Tbsp. each) and freeze them that way. They defrost quickly in the microwave or on the counter in 2 Tbsp. increments.

[janniecooks]

Like OCEllen says, only make sure to freeze in one- or two-tablespoon measures. I drop dollops by the tablespoon onto wax paper, freeze, and when solid put into ziploc freezer bags.

[jfood]

or you can freeze them in ice cube trays first. If they are plastic tray please spray with Pam first or the tray will turn red. This trick also works great if you freeze sauce in "tupperware." If you spray the plastic container with Pam before placing red sauce in them you should not have that red color effect when defrosted.

[greygarious]

Try putting tomato-stained plastic containers in direct sunlight for a day or so. That is supposed to restore them. I have also read that putting wads of newspaper inside a covered plastic container will remove any residual odors that have permeated the plastic.

[janniecooks]

What a great tip to prevent red sauce from discoloring plastic. Thanks!

[Vetter]

I drop tablespoons right onto plastic wrap that's spread out on my counter, wrap it up snugly, and then freeze that. I put them in the freezer door so they are hard to lose.

[OCEllen]

Put it in the freezer - it keeps fine at a lower temp.

[Paulustrious]

Absolutely. Wrap tablespoon size balls in plastic wrap and store them in the door. Don't make them too big or they take too long to defrost in a 'quick-fry' dish.

Edit: I just read Vetta's post below - Looks like I duplicated his/her post.

(I wish English had a suitable personal non-gender-specific singular personal pronoun.)

[fourunder]

Chicken stock, vegetables, pasta, white beans and tomato paste......

Minestrone or Pasta Fagioli

[CreativeFoodie42]

Ditto, leftover tomato paste in my house almost always calls for a hearty soup later in the week!