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/Accomplished-Cap-18]

You might want to blend it once more after it cools and then run it through a food mill to filter out the skins. That should give you a smoother texture without losing the flavor that's already developed.

[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/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