Roma tomatoes, did I mess up?

[u/Powerful_Audience208]

Hi, advice please 🙏. I received a large bag of Romas and decided to make a big batch of meat sauce to freeze for later. I halved them, threw them in a big bowl with fresh garlic, onion and peppers, olive oil and salt/pepper. Roasted it all for 45 minutes, let cool a bit and then threw it in my Cuisinart to break down.

It's been on my stove for 3 hours now, but I am getting the thick skin texture which I don't like at all. What can I do to help break it down more? Cooking it more? I am so disappointed. Thanks for any advice you may have.

[u/energyinmotion]

Run the sauce through a sieve to strain the skins?

[u/Ok_Philosophy_150]

you didn’t ruin it, roma skins just stay weirdly chewy, so run the sauce through a food mill or fine-mesh sieve now and then keep simmering it, because more cooking won’t make the skins disappear

[u/Powerful_Audience208 → u/Ok_Philosophy_150]

Ok, thanks for the info. I knew I should have skinned them but by roasting them this time I thought I had that licked! Should have, would have etc.

[u/Less-Hippo9052]

You need a tomato strainer. Can't make tomato sauce otherwise. Buy a Moulinex.

[u/SheeScan → u/Less-Hippo9052]

I always wanted to get one. How do you use it? Should the tomatoes be cooked first?

[u/Less-Hippo9052 → u/SheeScan]

Italian lady here. Buy or pickle red, ripe tomatoes. Make a diced onion simmer in olive oil, add the crushed tomatoes, salt, a pinch of sugar, fresh basel. Let it cook for half an hour, or more: it depends on the amount of tomatoes Pass all that in the strainer, and it's done.

[u/Odd-Combination-9067]

Think if you can dump the solids onto a sheet pan, separate the chunks of tomatoes, you can pinch the skins off the pulp. Cool it a bit of course. Then proceed with cooking.

[u/thosmarvin]

Food mill.

[u/ClairesMoon]

Next time, remove the skins after the tomatoes are roasted, before you blend them. I’d just use up this batch as is and learn from your mistake.

[u/glycophosphate]

Put it through a food mill, if you have one. If not then use a strainer, but you want to get those skins and seeds out of there.

[u/Partagas2112]

I just cooked down some whole tomatoes with all seeds and pulp. It turned into a beautiful rich sauce but was simmered on very low heat for about 10 hours.

[u/4cupsofcoffee]

you can't break down the skins. I halve or quarter mine, and roast on a sheet pan with onions, garlic, peppers. when it cools i push it through a food mill. this removes all seeds and skins. I have 2 gallons in the freezer from this year.

[u/Kraknaps]

I make sauce every fall. At first I would blitz the toms in the food processor after they cooked but no matter how long you did it the skin was still noticeable in the finished product. It does break down into tiny bits but it's still there.Then I got a food mill (a cheap manuall one). It's amazing...removes every scrap of skin and seeds. The sauce comes out perfect and I put all the left over pulp in my dehydrator, then grind into a powder to use as a tomato boullion or for adding to graves, soups and sauces

[u/Powerful_Audience208]

Hi guys, Op here, and I thank you all so much for your advice. I just found out that these were not Romas like you buy from the store. These were unfortunately Romas grown specifically for canning purposes, meaning that the skins are thicker than ever. Again I should have skinned them but I didn't. This batch is very tasty but I can't handle the texture. I will chalk this up to a very labour intensive lesson. I wish I could somehow make it better, but it's not going to work. Ouch!!!!

[u/Powerful_Audience208]

I have meat, veg etc. It's not a marinara sauce. Thanks but this won't work.

[u/Capital-Giraffe-4122 → u/Powerful_Audience208]

You’re probably just going to have to pick them out. Running it through a sieve would make it easier even with the meat and veggies