We are in search of the perfect homemade marinara recipe. Since we choose to forgo canned goods in our home, we don’t have the main ingredients for a tomato sauce sitting in our cupboard and just waiting to be used. We’ve easily replaced the star player – tomatoes – with whole, fresh tomatoes that we chop and puree down. But what do we do about tomato paste? How do we successfully thicken up our marinara?
We hate to admit it, but we haven’t yet figured out how to solve this particular issue. Our marinara is delicious, but a tad watery. We know that some chefs suggest flour or corn starch as a thickening agent. Others recommend simmering a sauce for as long as it takes to reach desired results. We don’t want to use flour or corn starch, mainly because we think it effects the taste. And since 
we don’t have any canned products, tomato paste is out. So we’re experimenting with simmering.
We’ve had good success but it still isn’t perfect. Simmering does result in a much thicker sauce with a more robust flavor. But even though it’s thicker, the end product is still a bit more watery than we’d really like to experience on our pasta.
So let’s circle back to tomato paste. Does the dominance of canned varieties completely preclude our enjoyment of tomato paste in recipes? No! We recently discovered that we can make our own tomato paste from scratch! Why we didn’t pursue this route earlier is anyone’s guess. It just comes down to occasionally missing what is right in front of your face.
Of course, homemade tomato paste could be disastrous. We haven’t tried it yet, so we’ll let you know!