Have I convinced you to buy Pam Corbin’s Preserves book yet? It’s a constant source of inspiration in our house, most recently for this fantastic roasted tomato ketchup.
The recipe is a little fiddly, but well worth the effort – we used up our first bottle so quickly that these photos were taken of our second batch!
Here is our version – modified from the original to suit the ingredients we had on hand and using our preferred method for roasting the tomatoes. There are two stages involved – the tomatoes are roasted and sieved to create a passata, which is then incorporated with other ingredients to form the ketchup.
We’ve also made a version of this using bottled passata rather than homemade, which makes the process very simple indeed. It was different, but delicious nonetheless.
Passata
- 2 – 3kg ripe Roma tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- scattering of salt
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 200C (400F) with fan. Lay the tomatoes on a parchment lined tray, and scatter over the chopped onion, garlic and salt. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes are well softened and just starting to blacken around the edges.
Now, either process the tomatoes through a food mill or tomato juicer, or push them through a sieve as I did. Using a food mill will result in more juice, but I was too lazy to wash it up!
Roasted Tomato Ketchup
- 1 litre roasted tomato passata (or you could use bottled passata)
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 50ml lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- a few grinds of black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 100g brown sugar
1. In a heavy based pot, combine all the ingredients except the sugar and bring to a gentle simmer. Then add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve, and continue to simmer gently for 20 – 30 minutes until the sauce reduces to a thick ketchup consistency (it will thicken a bit further as it cools). Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
2. Pour into warm sterilised bottles, seal and store in the fridge. Pam Corbin’s original recipe states that this will keep for up to four months.
This sauce is a surprisingly versatile ingredient to have in the fridge. It’s delicious on sausages and hamburgers, makes a great addition to curries, and we’ve also been using it in a roasted rib marinade (recipe to follow). Best of all, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a bacon and egg sandwich!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a perfect bottle of ketchup! Roasting the tomato definitely make the ketchup more delicious. I will have to try making ketchup this way next time :)
I wonder if we could run the passatta through our juicer… hmmm…. We don’t have a food mill. Is it worth it. Do you use yours often?
Now this looks yummy! I think I will have to try making a batch of this to see if I can get over my childhood aversion to home made ketchup. My mom made it once but never took out the seeds…it was bitter, watery and with the seeds…in a nut shell it did not go over well with us kids. ;-)
Love this!
All the ingredients are my favorite flavors!
This would be good on baked beans, as well!
I don’t have any tomatoes left this year- but next year I am so making this!
I just opened my one and only bottle of Chateau Corbin-Baron Pontack Sept 2009!
Must make this one too when the greengrocers gets some decent tomatoes in!
Have really enjoyed making my own ketchup over the last year or so. Have made both red and green (according to fruits of the garden) and used my grandfather’s recipe for a spicy ketchup each time.
Here’s a post I did when I made green ketchup, though my reds have looked more glorious, the taste of the green is just as good!
http://www.kaveyeats.com/2010/02/spicy-green-tomato-ketchup.html
Tes, thank you! :)
Maz, the food mill is a pain to clean, as is the dedicated tomato passata maker we bought. They both work well though, so it depends on how often you’d be making sauces. The sieve was fine too – it just took a bit longer and a few more tomatoes, as I couldn’t really squeeze them as dry in the sieve.
Cindy, this recipe also works well with good Italian bottled passata – maybe it’s worth trying it with that before you go to the effort to roast the toms? After all, you might still hate it.. ;-)
Heidi, thank you! Baked beans are a great idea, I hadn’t thought of that!
Jo, Google didn’t help me with your Corbin-Baron, so I’d love to know more! :)
Kavey, thanks for the link – I’ve been looking at all the green tomatoes in our garden, wondering if they were useful! It’s lovely to know they don’t have to be wasted! :)
You had me at roasted tomatoes, I knew it would be good starting with that ;) love the mustard, ginger & cloves – I know I’m going to like this one.
I havent bought Pam Corbins preserves book.., but will pick it up, sounds like something I need to have.
Anna, lots of subtle, sophisticated flavour combinations in Pam’s book – well worth the UKP10 it retails for at Amazon.uk! :)
Roasting the tomatoes must be the key. I always roast them off for making soup, so why hadn’t occourred to me to do it for ketchup? Possibly because I’m not the Celebrated Celia that’s why!
Ha! You’re kind, R, but it wasn’t my idea, it was clever Ms Corbin’s! :)
How delicious Celia! How could anyone eat normal tomato sauce when you could have this recipe.
I’ve been waiting to have a peak at that book from a friend of mine.
Brydie, you know, we’ve never been big tomato sauce eaters until now. We had a bottle of Heinz in the fridge for years and never touched it. Now suddenly everything seems to need tomato sauce on it! :)
Thanks Celia!
This is something I have been meaning to try for some time. My family love the commercial version, which I’m afraid I hate, but I would like to convert them to this and try it myself too! Would it be possible to just remove the skins and then liquidise the remaining pulp, I wonder, perhaps passing the liquid thorough a sieve afterwards to take out any stray pips? I hate sieving and don’t own a mill! Actually your ‘cheats’ version using passata sounds good to me so I may well try that first. Athough it would not have the rich flavour of the roasted tomatoes is it very different?
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
http://www.hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com
Hope, the “cheats” version is sooo easy, and we had it last night with chicken schnitzel. It tastes a little more like regular ketchup than the roasted sauce, possibly because the bottled passata was a bit sweeter than the tomatoes we can get at the moment, but it was very delicious. I think we’ll definitely be making both in the future.
Thanks Celia – Sounds good to me. I’ll put some passata on my shopping list (I don’t usually use it as I normally liquidise a can of plum tomatoes instead). Perhaps just a half quantity for starters because of the four month shelf life, though that might be a mistake…!
h/e
Finally got round to doing my own post of this super quick ketchup recipe. It has been very popular in our house. Thanks Celia for passing it on – it is wonderful used in your rib marinade!
h/e
Oooh that’s like liquid gold! How very precious! And a roasted rib marinade? Hehe you’ll have to fight the drop in visitors off for that! :P
Girlfriend, you know I’ve been obsessing about racks for ribs for weeks now, don’t you? ;-)
I’m not normally a fan of tomato sauce but I think I’ll have to give this one a go. It presents very nicely too if you needed a gift for a t-sauce lover!
Claire, as I mentioned to Brydie above, we weren’t big tomato sauce fans either, but we’ve suddenly been converted! I think it would make a nice pressie too – in fact, I gave a small bottle away yesterday! :)
You always have the best ideas!!! I will have to do this next summer. I’m going to buy Pams book. Thanks B
Beth, thank you! I’m sure you’ll love Pam’s book – everyone I know does, and she’s inspired quite a few recipes I’ve posted here…
I’m definitely doing this in a couple of month when I have tomatoes coming out of my ears!!
I can just imagine how awesome home made tomato ketchup would taste!
Maria, I can’t wait until I have tomatoes coming out of our ears too! I keep going out and counting all the green ones in the garden..hahaha
I’ll certainly be giving this a try – just as soon as I can find some bottles. I have been hunting for some to make your vanilla essence in to give as Christmas gifts, now I’ll need even more.
I will probably use the Thermomix rather than a food mill – they are a major pain to get clean!
A, let me give you a bottle tip, try http://www.plasdene.com.au/. They sell bulk glass jars and bottles, and I’m a big fan. They have a branch in Adelaide as well. Call first to see what their minimums are though, I think it’s around $100 (but the per bottle/jar price is much much cheaper than retail!).
Yum!! I imagine the stuff from the store would never do after tasting this. So pretty too.
And guess what arrived? My adorable bags! A proper thank you is coming but I wanted to make sure you knew they make it safe and sound and I love them.
Preppy, I think it’s more that I don’t know all the ingredients that go into store ketchup, whereas we really do here! And thanks so much for letting me know – delighted that the little bags made it to you! Did you notice I picked pink ones for you.. ;-)
Hi Celia!
I’ve always wanted to make ketchup, but never found one that sounded “right”. I’ll have to try it next summer when we have ripe tomatoes again.
I always used a blender when making tomato sauce, sieve went too slow, and it was easy to clean. Wouldn’t it work here as well?
I like your funnel. Are they only available in Australia?
I often use green tomatoes to make Green Tomato Bars. They taste great, and most people think the filling is made from apple, not tomato. A different twist on using a tomato!
Glad you already have tomatoes!
Sadly I must confess to never have tasted homemade ketchup. It’s not something we eat very often. However, after reading your post Celia, I have to try this!
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy! :)
Manuela, a blender probably would work, although our preference is to get the skins and seeds out. But if you don’t mind them, they’d be no reason to go to the extra trouble. Not sure about the funnel, sorry, but it does seem very standard? It’s stainless steel and we use it all the time. I will keep the green tomato ideas you and Kavey have suggested for the end of summer – at the moment the baby green ones (we have romas and cherries) are all promising a bright red bumper crop (even though they’re still all green). Here’s a couple of photos I took yesterday! :)
How long do you think the sauce would keep for in the fridge once it has been opened. I love making my own sauce and the kids love it as I suddenly let them eat a whole lot more of it as it suddenly appears to be a health food in comparison to the supermarket ones!
I love all your preserves, I can’t wait to start making some of my own. I will definitely be trying some of your recipes! You have a great blog :)
Mmm, delicious, Celia! I made some ketchup way back in February (from Jamie @ Home). I used the slow cooker but I really like the idea of roasting the tomatoes first – will definitely do this next time. The only problem with homemade ketchup is that it gets eaten up SO quickly, nothing compares to it!! :)
Question – the poppy bottles you have there – they can’t be waterbathed can they? Or can they? Thanks!
Hello Celia!!
Your roadsted tomato ketchup looks just stunning & lovely too!
MMMMMMM,..great home made food!
roasting tomatoes is the key to a superb instead of just good recipe. I roast my tomatoes when i make my mexican salsa and it is unbelievable! people ask me what is the secret ingredient, which is really just roasting the tomatoes!!! this ketchup looks amazing!
Christina, I think it would keep for weeks in the fridge, probably longer. The vinegar and lemon juice would help preserve it a bit.
Susan, Sophie and Aleida, thank you! :)
Christine, the poppy bottles are recycled French lemonade bottles from Aldi and I think they can be hot water processed (you’d have to leave the tops out of the water), but we don’t have a pot deep enough. If I thought we were going to keep this any longer, I would probably put it into jars and hot water process it properly. But like your place, it gets eaten so quickly here!
I think what we might do when toms are in season is to make lots of roasted passata and then freeze it. The making of the ketchup is actually very easy to do, and we’ll probably just put that together a bottle as a time when needed.
I also made a version with stewed rhubarb added to the sauce – it was very nice! (And used up our old rhubarb stems.. :)).
The tomatoes look lovely! I’ll keep the water processing in mind when I make it. I’ll put the ketchup in jars to put some up for winter. Thanks!
Recycled bottles from Aldi? Nooo, really? They are SOOO cute!! I thought you must’ve hunted them down from a clever source. I will keep an eye out for them on my travels! Thanks for the info, the stewed rhubarb would add a different twist! (lucky you having some to stew!!) :)
Celia, you do make me laugh – you’re just like me, preferring to spend time doing things the long way around because we can’t be bothered to do the washing up. That’s why I generally make all my cakes by hand. I think I might just have to get this book. I have a book on preserves so thought I really shouldn’t acquire another one, but I have to say I don’t find it very inspiring and I know Pam’s is a good one. Your ketchup sounds delicious and I shall be buying a bottle of passata the next time I come across one. Presumably, you could preserve the ketchup by doing a water bath – we don’t have much room in our fridge.
I know what I’ll be doing with a glut of tomatoes this summer!
I love homemade tomato ketchup. We can’t go back to the store bought kind now that i make our own. It’s just so much yummier and more complex in flavour and texture. I love the idea of using roasted tomatoes in ketchup -yum!
Manuela, I haven’t hot water processed this recipe, but Pam Corbin’s book does say it’s possible. We tend to freeze our tomato passata rather than bottling it – we have a big freezer! :)
Chris, I know, I was so excited that we bought a case of lemonade, just to get the bottles! Luckily it was delicious as well.. :)
Choc, I think you would really like Pam’s book – it’s based around English fruits and veg, including lots of hedgerow crops!
Sarah, I can’t wait until we get tomatoes – for now we’re still buying them at the markets…
Bee, there’s no turning back for us either! :)
Just water processing my first ever batch of tomato ketchup thanks to you Celia. I’m not a fan of bought tomato ketchup at all – probably why I’ve never thought to make my own, but this is really delicious. I did modify the recipe somewhat, I used a couple of our chillies instead of the mustard and put some different spices in and less sugar. CT will be really pleased as he’s a big tomato fan. Thank you again for another great recipe.
Choc, I missed this comment! Thanks for letting me know – so glad you’re enjoying it!
[…] series and her book Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No 2. Celia has two versions of Roasted Tomato Ketchup on her site. In the first one you pre-roast and sieve the tomatoes with other ingredients to […]
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