Tomate frito is every Spanish cook’s go-to tomato sauce – tangy, savoury and hugely versatile. In supermarkets you’ll usually find it in a completely separate aisle to the tinned tomatoes, available in tins, jars and cartons. The commercial stuff can be tasty, but is often highly processed and full of additives, so making your own is a great idea.
Put simply, it’s a reduced and pureed tomato sauce, used as the basis for scores of other dishes. You’ll find it on arroz cubana, albondigas (meatballs), in pasta dishes and as part of the basic sauce for hundreds of other dishes.
Tomatoes are the key here – if you can get ripe, local toms, use them (extra-ripe ones are often sold cheaply as tomates para salsa in local markets, but you’ll have to chop them first, removing stalks and any discoloured parts). Otherwise, tinned plum tomatoes or the chopped (troceado) or pureed (triturado) versions will be fine.
INGREDIENTS
• 800g Tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A bay leaf
• A dried chilli
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Sugar
METHOD
1. If using fresh tomatoes, chop them into quarters.
2. Chop the onion and garlic and fry in three tablespoons of olive oil on a medium heat until soft but not coloured – around 8-10 minutes.
3. Add the fresh or tinned tomatoes and season with salt to taste. Add a bay leaf, a dried chilli, a teaspoon of sugar and simmer for at least 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Taste, adding more sugar and salt if necessary. If you’ve used fresh tomatoes, pass the sauce through a sieve using a wooden spoon, discarding the tomato skins. If you used tinned tomatoes, remove the bay leaf and give it a whizz with a blender. You’ll see the sauce change to a more orangey colour as you blend.
Chef’s Tip: You can experiment with your tomate frito, adding oregano, a red chilli or two or fresh basil. Tomate frito freezes well in Tupperware containers. It can also be kept as a conserve in sterilised, tightly sealed jars that have been boiled.
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