Fresh Banana Pepper and Tomato Paste

by Keith Chadwick
(Ottawa Canada)

This year I had a bumper crop of both banana peppers, about 200 and a massive crop of tomatoes, about 80 pounds worth. I decided to try making my own tomato paste and used the banana peppers to add some sweetness. Below is the recipe

5 pounds of tomatoes
4 Medium size banana peppers
4 Cloves of garlic
2 TBS of Oregano
2 TBS of Basil
1 tsp of Salt
2 tsp of fresh ground pepper

Skin each of your tomatoes and cut into quarters. A trick to peeling, put them in the freezer the night before then wash under warm water and you can easily rub the skin off.

Place the cut tomatoes in a very large and deep frying pan, no stick is best. The one I use holds 7.5QT. Place frying pan on stove on high and bring to cooking temperature. Using a potato masher mash up the tomatoes in the pan and bring to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Poor the tomatoes from through a large sieve into another large pan to remove the seeds. Using a food mixer or hand held mixer, I use a brawn hand help soup mixer which works great. Purée the tomatoes.

Wash the original pan and dry and poor tomatoes back and add in dry spices.

Wash and deseed the banana peppers and along with the garlic place in a mixer and puree. Pour this into the tomato mixture and stir.

Slow simmer the mixer in the oven for about 3 hours at 350. I usually do this on my gas BBQ with the lid down and keep it at 300 as I find it does a better job.

Gently stir the mixture about every 30 minutes until you have reached the consistency you want.

Bottle and refrigerate or freeze for later use. This recipe will result in approximately 3QTs of tomato paste that you can use in your recipes.

It may seem like a lot of work but the sauce is delicious with the sweet banana peppers and adds a wonderful natural sweetness.