How To Grate Tomatoes (Ntomata sto Trifti) - Greek Recipes

	How To Grate Tomatoes (Ntomata sto Trifti) Grated tomatoes are a common ingredient in Greek recipes. I had never heard of grating tomatoes before I started my Greek food adventure, but it’s an elegant solution that predates food processors to the problem of obtaining fresh tomato puree. Why not use a food processor these days? Well you could, except that you’d have to include the skins unless you go to the bother of blanching and peeling the tomatoes. By grating the tomatoes you essentially remove the meat from the skin, rather than vice versa, thus obtaining skinless tomato pulp. The method I learned from Zoe is illustrated in the photographs below. All you do is cut the stem-aand-shoulders end of the tomatoes and then grate them on a box grater. Alternatively, you could cut the tomatoes in half cross-wise and remove the seeds before grating them. I’ve hardly ever bothered to make tomato concasse since I learned of this technique. Place the tomato on the coarse holes of a box grater, skinless side down, and…begin! Grate to remove as much of the pulp as you can from the skin, but don’t grate the tomato skin or your own skin! You’ll end up with a bowl of tomato pulp and some skins that you can either discard or use in stock. 6 Comments » Comment by Sam Sotiropoulos Lulu, Yes, tomatoes figure pretty prominently in Greek food. Greece is actually the third largest producer of tomatoes on the planet, after the USA and Italy. Considering you’re on a Greek food adventure, you just might be interested in my own Greek food blog: http://greekgourmand.blogspot.com/ Be Well, Sam Sotiropoulos Comment by lulu Hi Sam, thanks for visiting. I’ve added you to my blogroll. Hey, that’s a really interesting food-fact about Greece. I’m surprised she’s ahead of Spain. That’s great! Comment by Randy Minck thanks for the great instruction and photos! I’m cooking Tapas and they do a lot of tomato grating… wasnt quite sure how to do it. Comment by lulu Welcome, Randy! Glad this helped! Comment by Lea Prikker Finally I know what “grated tomatoes” means. Twice I Made Moussaka with a tin of tomatoes and the result was a lot of juice at the bottom.I’ll try again!! Comment by Lulu Hi, Lea! Hmm, canned tomato sauce is what Mama uses for moussaka because she usually makes it in the winter. The tomato sauce (whether canned or freshly grated) should be cooked with the meat until most of the moisture is gone. Maybe you didn’t cook the meat sauce long enough? RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment If you want to leave a feedback to this post or to some other user´s comment, simply fill out the form below. Name E-mail URI Your Comment Enable CommentLuv which will try and parse your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
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