Tomato paste with garlic for winter

Sorting tomatoes. If you come across crumpled ones, you can also take them, but it's better to put aside the rotten and sour ones, since they will spoil the taste of the finished dish. Then the tomatoes are thoroughly washed and cut into slices.

We put the chopped vegetables in a thick-walled dish (or at least with a thick bottom). I have not yet met such dishes of the right size, so I divide the amount by 2 and cook in two cauldrons. We send it to the fire.

Bring the mass to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook until the vegetables soften. It is necessary that they turn into porridge and the skin moves away from the pulp (this will take about half an hour).

Well, we come to the most crucial stage: we grind the hot tomato mass through a fine sieve to squeeze out all the pulp to the maximum and get rid of the skins and seeds. It's not a five-minute thing, so be patient.

Peel the garlic and squeeze it out through a press. The resulting gruel is introduced into tomato juice, stirred.

It remains to boil the mass to a pasty consistency. To do this, we send it back to the fire (slightly below average) and boil it to the desired density (it takes me 4-4.5 hours), while stirring occasionally. After 3 hours, the paste will noticeably decrease in volume due to the fact that the liquid has evaporated. Now it is impossible to move away from the stove - you need to constantly stir the mass, otherwise it may burn, which is why the finished tomato paste will have an unpleasant smell, and you will have extra work (cleaning the bottom of the dishes).

We put the hot bubbling paste into sterile jars (I sterilize in the microwave - the jars are hot and dry, I like it). We roll up with sterile tin lids. Then everything is as usual - we turn it upside down, wrap it with a warm blanket, leave it until it cools down completely, after which we remove it to a permanent storage place.

Use it for your health!