The story

My tomato wonton recipe is sort of an accident.

Via pop-ups, I’ve served my pistachio clam shio ramen recipe to hundreds of people. The recipe has always used a pistachio cream — a puree made from pistachios and oils that adds variety to an otherwise monotone ramen dining experience. Unfortunately, I’ve never been happy with how I served that pistachio cream. Plate the pistachio cream on its own and it clouds the broth. Put the pistachio cream in a vessel of some sort (I used to put it in a little zucchini sandwich), and you’re left with soggy toppings mid-service. The only solution was to make the pistachio/zucchini sandwiches every few minutes, and that’s a total pain when serving ramen for 100 people.

I knew I had to solve this problem, so I posted a question to my Instagram followers. How can I serve my ramen’s pistachio cream in a way that scales?

A few people responded saying, “wonton!” And this was a horrible idea. Traditional wontons would require an a la minute prep step just like my pistachio/zucchini sandwiches. I do not want to cook wontons in the middle of service.

But it was also an amazing idea, because it sparked a whole new avenue of thinking. The pistachio itself doesn’t need to be cooked, so what if I make the wonton wrapper out of something that also doesn’t need to be cooked? What if I create wontons that can be fully assembled in advance and served directly from the fridge? We’re onto something.

Cue the idea of tomatoes. Roasted tomatoes are already a common ramen ingredient, and tomatoes go great with the basil and pistachio I was already using in the recipe. If I make the wonton wrapper out of tomato (like a tomato leather), it’d be a perfect match for the rest of the bowl.

But tomato leather is harder than it sounds. You see, tomatoes don’t have enough pectin (a natural thickener) to create a traditional fruit leather, and I didn’t want to add sugar to help with the viscosity, so I needed to devise a recipe that corrected for the tomatoes natural “flaws”. I tested tons of emulsifiers and thickeners, trying to optimize (1) mouth feel (2) simplicity of execution and (3) ability to withstand a hot broth. The final recipe was surprisingly simple, so I’m sharing it here.

What you need: Equipment

• Dehydrator. To reduce the tomato puree at a low temperature for a looong time.

• Silicone mats. To dehydrate on a flat, nonstick surface.

• Spray bottle. To rehydrate the dehydrated puree so that it is easy to cut and fold.

• Blender. To blend the ingredients for each component. I have a Blendtec.

• Silicone spatula. To spread the tomato puree prior to blending.

• Pizza cutter. I’ve found this is the easiest way to cut the tomato leather in uniform lines.

• Food scale. This recipe needs to be measured to the gram.

What you need: Ingredients

One 28 oz. can of tomatoes makes about 24 post-it note sized wontons.

Wonton wrapper

• Canned seedless tomato puree (one 28 oz can). Feel no shame for using canned tomatoes! Canned tomatoes are captured when tomatoes are in peak season, and I’d much rather someone else do the work of deseeding them. I use Cento brand.

• Xanthan gum. This is a thickener/stabilizer to make up for the lack of pectin in tomatoes. I prefer xanthan gum for this recipe over something like cornstarch because it doesn’t need to be heated to activate (which both makes it easier to make and helps retain the raw tomato flavor).

• Salt

Pistachio cream

• Raw shelled pistachios (100g)

• Water (60g)

• Olive oil (15g)

• Canola oil (45g)

• Lemon juice to taste

• Salt to taste

Tomato wonton

• Tomato wonton wrapper

• Pistachio cream

• Basil

• Lemon verbena (or lemon thyme)

STEPS

Tomato wonton wrapper

1. Put your blender on your scale. Add the contents of the tomato puree can and note the exact weight.

2. Add to the blender 50% of that weight in water (multiply by 0.5), 1.5% of that weight in xanthan gum (multiply by 0.015), and 1% of that weight in salt (multiple by 0.01). Blend.

3. Spread the puree thinly on your silicone dehydrator mats. You should be able to spread this across about 2.5 mats.

4. Dehydrate at 140ºF until the puree becomes a totally solid fruit leather.

5. Remove the fruit leather from the mat, spray from afar once with a spray bottle, flip it over, spray it again from afar, then wait about 30 seconds for the liquid to soak in. This slightly softens the leather enough for you to cut it with the pizza cutter. If it’s too dry, the leather will crack instead of cutting where you need it to.

6. On a cutting board, cut the leather into 3”x3” squares using the pizza cutter.

7. Store in an airtight container.

Pistachio cream

1. Combine all ingredients except lemon juice and salt in your blender.

2. Blend on highest speed for 2 minutes. The goal is to blend at a very high speed for a long time so as to lightly toast the nuts.

3. Season with salt and lemon juice. The lemon taste should be noticable but not overpowering.

4. Add to a piping bag if making many wontons at once.

Tomato wonton

1. Take a wonton wrapper and spray it with the spray bottle. Two sprays from afar is usually enough to soften the wonton wrapper to the point where you can fold the wonton in half. Don’t fold it yet.

2. Put a basil leaf on top of the wrapper then top the leaf with a dollop of pistachio cream and one piece of lemon verbena (or a few lemon thyme leaves).

3. Fold the wonton diagonally to create a triangle with these ingredients inside.

4. This finished wrapper will store in the fridge (covered) or for a couple hours at room temperature. I like to spray the wrapper again right before serving to soften it up a bit.