We’re going low-key and into the kitchen for this one. It’s a “food hack” that I came across the other day that sounded great (for my purposes), so I tried it – and it worked absolutely wonderfully, solving a problem I've dealt with for far too long. I love pasta, and eat it 3-4 times a week. Though I do have a tomato sauce recipe I like, I tend to get jarred sauce because…well, it’s so much easier. And I've found a few that I like which are very low in fat, an important issue for me. The one downside of tomato sauce is that it can go bad semi-quickly. Not quickly, but if you don’t finish the jar in 2-3 weeks (and usually it’s closer to 3), you risk having to throw it out. Because I have pasta so often, that’s not usually a problem. And it's probably not a problem for big families. However, it is a problem for me (and I'm sure for others) because sometimes I like a change of pace and want to make a lot of different sauces -- lemon-garlic-red pepper-anchovy is a big fave, but there are others. And so, usually I wait until a jar of tomato sauce is finished because I go off the beaten "tomato sauce path" for a while. That's fine, but I’d much prefer to mix-and-match throughout the week for more variety, not wait until a jar is finished. Hence the “problem.” One thing I do know is that tomato sauce freezes well. I make low-fat pizza every other week (“every other” because I eat half “fresh,” and freeze the rest for the next week) and get little jars of pizza sauce. And being little jars, the fit easily in the freezer. So, I just defrost it the night before Pizza-Making Day. But a tomato sauce jar takes up too much room in the freezer. Which brings us to the hack. It said to get silicon cupcake holders. Fill each one with tomato sauce. Freeze them. And then, being silicon, the frozen sauce pops out easily. And you can put the little hockey pucks in a freezer bag and simply defrost whatever portion you need. It sounded good, so I tried it out. I bought a packet of 12 Amazon Basics cupcake holders for a little over $5. (If interested, you can get them here.) Since portion size will be different to people’s needs, my own use won't matter for everyone, but I happen to use about 130 grams of tomato sauce for a meal (and yes, I do portion it out, in order to balance a full jar) -- and augment it with diced tomatoes and tomato paste to make it even richer, because I love a rich, thick tomato sauce, and additional spices for my taste. And as it happens, if you fill one of the cupcake holders near the brim, it holds around 65 grams. So, two holders works out (for me) to one portion. Perfect. Since a jar of tomato sauce holds five portions (for me…) and because I did this on a day when I was making pasta that night, I had four portions left over in the jar That meant needing eight filled-cupcake holders to freeze. I put them on a tray, carried them in the freezer, and the next day checked it out… And as promised – they just simply popped out.
Lovely little, tomato sauce hockey pucks! I put them all in two quart-sized freezer bags. And now can have mix-and-match pasta all the time without being concerned about having to use the jar of tomato sauce up before it goes bad. I defrost them overnight when planning my next-day's meal, though popping them in the microwave for a minute or so does the trick. And so, the long-hold Great Tomato Sauce Problem has at last been solved! Buon gusto!
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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