Tomatenmarktomato paste

Tomato cooked down to a triple concentrate. Dark red, nearly solid, it stands up on the spoon.

It sits in goulash, in Rouladen sauce, in lentil soup and in Sauerbraten sauce. One or two spoonfuls carry a whole pot.

Die Fallethe trap

Puré de tomate is not the same thing. It is thin, like passata, and mostly water.

Substitute it and you get a watery sauce with no depth, and you have to reduce it for a long time to see any colour at all. Ask for concentrado de tomate or pasta de tomate by name.

In der Pfannein the pan

Fry the paste briefly in the hot fat before you deglaze. It darkens and loses the raw tinned note.

Not too long: burnt tomato paste turns the whole sauce bitter and there is no taking it back out.

Kaufenwhere to buy

Supermarkets, often in small cans. Move an opened can into a jar, cover it with a film of oil and keep it in the fridge.