Using Tomato Ends For Your Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Posted on by Forest in Recipes & Food
A long while back I blogged about my Spaghetti Sauce Recipe. This is a recipe that I make very often and it varies slightly each time depending on what I have to hand, how long I cook it and other things that I feel like experimenting with.
The thing I really love about this recipe is that it tastes great (most times!) and is one of my top frugal recipes. It costs next to nothing and is excellent health wise too!
After I originally blogged about the recipe I had moved to Canada and was working in an Irish Pub in Montreal as a salad/sandwich chef. Part of my job was food prep and one thing I had to do was cut absolutely tons of tomatoes for use in the hundreds of salads and sandwiches that we made each day. The top and the bottom of each tomato was deemed useless so it would be tossed into the trash and that was the end of that (They should have been composting but that is another issue!).
Throwing away all these juicy bits of tomato was getting a little frustrating for me. One day whist chopping I had an idea (it was very mindless so I used to have lots of ideas 
). The tomato ends could just be used for spaghetti sauce, instead of using the canned stuff that was purchased.
I went to my boss and proposed the idea. She laughed at me and said it wouldn’t work…. I don’t much like being told my ideas won’t work so I started saving up the tomato ends in buckets for a few days.
When I had enough and on a quiet day I went about making a large vat of pasta sauce just using these tomato ends and no whole tomatoes. I used the industrial blender to blend it to a consistancy similar to the purchased sauce and when my boss arrived in the evening, I presented her the sauce.
She asked… “This was made from all the ends we throw away?“. I proudly proclaimed that it was and from that day on no more canned sauce was purchased and all tomato sauce was made from the tomato ends. It saved the company money and was much more eco-friendly…. Plus the sauce was yummy!
How can you use this idea at home?
A busy commercial kitchen uses far more tomatoes than you do at home so it’s not easy to save so many tomato ends quickly. However a tupperware in the freezer is an ideal solution. Every time you cut tomatoes for any reason just save the ends and throw them in the tupperware. When you have enough for sauce or you are making sauce anyway, add the tomato ends (no need to un-thaw.
It’s not a big money saver but it’s the little things that count, right?
I would love to know what you think of this tip and if you have any similar things that you do?
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12 Responses to “Using Tomato Ends For Your Spaghetti Sauce Recipe”
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Jolyn@Budgets are the New Black
24. Apr, 2010
I hate waste and get frustrated with myself when I have to throw away food gone bad from my own refrigerator. Just last night, I was at my base commissary where I always do my grocery shopping, but normally during the day. I was getting my lunchmeat (for sandwiches) at the deli when it occurred to me to ask what they do with all the leftover pre-cut meat at the end of the day; it was only ten minutes til closing time and I was looking at all the meat behind the glass they obviously wouldn’t be selling that night. They throw it out! No pre-arranged donation, nothing! They said they aren’t allowed to give it away b/c of the chance of “something happening”! Regulations, they said. They didn’t like it, either.
Just had to share that with someone, it bothered me so much. Of course, if I put any thought to it I would have figured that’s what they did. But standing there looking at all that meat, knowing it’d be thrown out in 10 minutes time, just made it more real.
.-= Jolyn@Budgets are the New Black´s last blog ..Why Wait to Stage a House? =-.
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Forest
24. Apr, 2010
From working in the restaurant mentioned in this article I know all about that and the frustration it used to cause me…. As staff we used to sneak some stuff off for ourselves as it was going to be thrown away anyway…. However I don’t think this is legal.
There should be special disclaimer boxes issued by the government that allowed you to give stuff to homeless shelters and things. They could come collect the left over food packed it in the disclaimer box and if anything happened to anyone then the company could not be held responsible.
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Money Funk
26. Apr, 2010
I love when I hear people making the most of their resources. Especially for a company. Tomato ends… who would of thunk?
Joyln, that is surprising. I never thought of them throwing meat out. That’s a life.
I mean, I know about vegetables/fruit they do. Its just sad. I look at the specialty fruit/veggies in the grocery store just knowing that most will be thrown out instead of bought. Industrial farming/agriculture… not a good thing when you know there ae so many hungry people in the world.
.-= Money Funk´s last blog ..The New High-Tech $100 Bill Edition =-.
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Forest
27. Apr, 2010
Yeah, sadly the company scoffed at the idea until someone (me) showed them that it could be done….. no innovation or foresight!!!
It’s sad that anything ever has to go to waste
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Des @ Affiliate Progress
28. Apr, 2010
That’s a great way to use up waste tomato. We used to throw away a lot of vegetables at home when they got past their best. Now I make up big pans of vegetable soup that last for days and can even be frozen.
Amazing what combinations you can come up with. Cabbage and potato is probably my finest creation so far!
.-= Des @ Affiliate Progress´s last blog ..Why Do You Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer? =-.
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Forest
29. Apr, 2010
Thanks , I thought it was a good idea too
I love vege soup and it’s a great way to use up all sorts of things. Cabbage and potato sounds yummy… I love red cabbage, works well in stirfry too.
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Aury (Thunderdrake)
19. May, 2010
Hah. Now that’s going a whole nine yards on frugality.
The best part was proving your boss wrong though XD
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Forest
20. May, 2010
He he, yeah I can be a little extreme in places and a bit lax in others!
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Dunc
09. Oct, 2010
What’s a tomato end? And please DO NOT tell me that it’s the bit that the vine attaches to on the tom or any other part of the fruit for that matter. People should be eating the whole tomato anyway!!
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Forest
10. Oct, 2010
Most people cut the top and bottom of the tomato off and throw it away. Just the way people are taught to use a tomato. In the restaurant you could NEVER put those parts in peoples sandwiches. Throwing them in a sauce or stew is a perfect way to use them up.
Like you say we should be using the whole fruit.
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Dunc
11. Oct, 2010
WTF.
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Forest
13. Oct, 2010
I know, right!
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