When should I reduce tomato purée to brick red or stop midway?

Question

In order to make tomato purée from scratch, tomatoes are boiled and then ground in a grinder to make a paste.

As mentioned here, usually as I have been taught, one must always reduce the tomato paste till it is brick red in colour. No spices or flavours added yet. It is only tomato.

Example: For making a watery gravy, the tomato is reduced to brick red and then a great deal of water is added to make it almost as thin as water.

However I have a doubt whether it is always necessary to do so.

Question The question is, when should one reduce it to brick red and when should one stop midway? (To obtain what results one should reduce to brick red and to obtain what results must one stop midway)

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^{(Please give one or two examples - For example, while making Spaghetti Arabiatta, should the tomato paste be reduced to brick red and add a little water later on OR should one stop mid way when the desired consistency is obtained? What will happen in either case? What is the logic to do either?}

Answer 1

Your question and the included link appear to be referring to different issues. I’ll attempt to answer, and you can clarify.

Tomato paste is used to add umami or savoriness to a dish. It is vey high in glutamates. Your link suggests that deeply caramelizing the paste is an important step, and one with which I agree. Caramelization will add significantly to the umami of the tomato paste, and thus the flavor of your final product. …even if you add other liquid back to the dish.

My confusion comes in two places. Are you making your own paste, or using prepared paste in another dish? If you are using the paste in another dish, how much you caramelize might depend on the dish, and how deeply you want it to be flavored.

Second, not all tomato-based sauces or stews contain or need tomato paste. Again, it depends on your final product. For example, I would not use paste at all in spaghetti arabiatta (although you certainly can), but I would use it in bolognese.