Rich Homemade Beef Stock with homemade tomato paste

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade tomato paste ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Wash the tomatoes, remove the cores and quarter each tomato.

   KnifeCutting board
2. 2
   Put the tomatoes, the salt and half of the olive oil in a wide pot, cover and cook over medium heat about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes soften and release their liquid.

   StoveWide, shallow pot
3. 3
   Pass the tomatoes and their liquid through a food mill or sieve and return the purée to the pot: the skins and seeds stay behind.

   Food millorFine sieve
4. 4
   Cook uncovered about an hour at a lively simmer, stirring now and then, until the purée reduces by half.

   StoveWooden spoon

   💡The paste burns easily as it dries: stir and scrape the bottom and edges, and once it is thick, don't walk away.
5. 5
   Preheat the oven to 110°C (230°F).

   Oven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
6. 6
   Grease a wide baking dish with the rest of the olive oil and pour in the purée in a thin layer. Dry in the oven about 3 hours, stirring and scraping the edges every 30 minutes, until the paste is thick, sticky and brick red.

   OvenBaking sheetSilicone spatula
7. 7
   Let the paste cool.

   Jar

For the Stock

1. 8
   Brush the oil and tomato paste over the bones.

   Pastry brush

   💡Tomato paste browned on the bones in the oven deepens the color and flavor of the stock.
2. 9
   Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F)' and roast the bones in a pan for about half an hour, until browned'.

   OvenBaking pan

   💡Roasting is what gives the stock its dark color and deep meaty flavor.
3. 10
   Transfer the bones to a large pot, along with the juices in the pan.

   Large pot
4. 11
   Add the water and the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt, and bring to a boil.

   Stove
5. 12
   'Skim off the foam. 'Turn down' the heat to very low' and simmer' only very gently' 3–4 hours.

   Stove

   💡Skim off the foam that rises at the start of cooking: it's proteins that cloud the stock.

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
6. 13
   Strain through a fine strainer and let cool.

   Fine sieve
7. 14
   Lift off the layer of fat that has hardened on top of the cooled stock.