Tomato fond

We love Turkish cuisine and when we were reading a cookbook by Ali Güngörmüs, we came across this idea that we want to include in this blog for use in other recipes. Certainly not only for Turkish dishes.

It doesn’t take much to make a deliciously fruity tomato fond. We start with shallots, a little garlic and some fresh tomatoes.

The shallots and garlic are peeled and finely chopped. The tomatoes are halved and the stalks removed.

Now we sauté the shallots and garlic in olive oil for about five minutes over medium-high heat. They should not brown.

During this time, the fresh tomatoes are diced and then transferred to the pot. To this is added the contents of a can of peeled tomatoes. The usual ratio of fruit to sauce in a can is 60:40, so a 400 ml can contains about 140 ml of liquid. Now we fill up with tomato juice so that we have a total of 500 ml of liquid.

This is brought to a gentle simmer and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Icing sugar, lemon juice and cayenne pepper are also added to enhance the natural flavour of the tomatoes.

After 30 minutes, stirring a few times, the pot is taken off the heat and the mixture is left to cool down a little.

Then everything is strained through a fine sieve, leaving the skin and firmer pieces of the tomatoes as well as the onions and garlic behind. The result is about half a litre of intensely tomato flavoured, delicate and silky fond.

It is also possible to make light or clear tomato fond, but this requires completely different techniques, which we will explain another time.

Ingredients (for 500 ml):

4 shallots

2 cloves of garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

5 medium tomatoes

1 tin of peeled tomatoes (400 g)

360 ml tomato juice

Salt

Black pepper from a mill

1 tbsp icing sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

A pinch of cayenne pepper