Grated Tomatoes: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

When you go to make tomato sauce, you probably reach for your knife and your cutting board.

Perhaps a blender.

If you really know what you’re doing, you’ve already busted out the food processor, and given your tomatoes just the right amount of blade-whirring action.

However… I’d like to introduce you to the cheese grater.

That’s right. A cheese grater for processing your garden fresh tomatoes.

Food processors can be a mess to clean, and it’s easy to over-blend your tomatoes; not what you want to do if you’re looking for a chunkier sauce.

Simply dicing your tomatoes doesn’t give you the same, smooth texture, either.

However, a cheese grater will give you just the right amount of mashed tomato, juice, and larger chunks; chunky tomato sauce is what a good bowl of spaghetti is all about!

What About The Tomato’s Skin, You Ask?

For me, I do enjoy the tomato skins in the sauce. This is something a lot of other people don’t like though; once again, the grater wins!

The skin will refuse to go through the grater for the most part. While the meat and juice slide away effortlessly as the tomato moves against the grater, the skin will simply buckle. This method is really wonderful for the thicker-skinned tomatoes growing in your backyard.

You can then toss the remaining scraps into the compost, or you can remove the stem and dehydrate the skins. This can later be used to make a nutrient rich tomato powder that has tons of culinary uses.

Can You Process a Big Batch of Garden Tomatoes This Way?

Of course you can! You can move through a bushel of tomatoes with this method fairly quickly. However, I highly recommend using a few methods in tandem to achieve the ultimate batch of tomato sauce.

First, grate 1/2 of your tomatoes with the grater. Then, take 1/4 of the batch and puree it into a smooth sauce. For the remaining 1/4 of your tomatoes, dice them finely. This will produce a delicious sauce base that your family will absolutely love!