[PUGACHEV]

It's easy. Fill a pot with cold water, and set it aside. Boil another pot of water on the range. Take the tomatoes and put a skin deep 1" to 2" slash diagonally in each one, like a dueling scar, across the northern to southern hemisphere. Now, drop two or three tomatoes at a time into the boiling water and let them sit for maybe a minute. Next scoop them out and drop them into the cold water. The skin will shrivel back from the cut and loosen from the pulp allowing you to easily pull it away.

Now I have a question. Having pulped the tomatoes, I find that the sauce is pink and watery. If it boil it down, I seem to loose a lot of the tomato flavor. How do I thicken the fresh tomato puree to get a deep red thick sauce without over boiling it?

[Mountaintoplover]

If your goal is a thick sauce, once the tomatoes have been pureed, don’t boil them. Put them in a stock pot with the lid “ajar” (tilted on one side) and simmer on LOW. That allows the excess liquid to cook down, leaving more tomato flavor. If it still isn’t thick enough for you, mix cornstarch with ice water to thicken it up. Not sure about the quantity that you’re working with, but for a rule of thumb use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/4 cup of ice water per 2 cups of puree. Stir until the cornstarch is absorbed by the water and add to your tomatoes. Stir until thickened. If it still isn’t thick enough, add more cornstarch/water.