Italian summer experience, Tomato Passata

Italians love and could not survive without their pasta: it’s easy, quick and absolutely delicious. It’s the first dish that any child learns how to cook. They can use their creativity to create amazing dishes with anything you find in the fridge.

Of course the most famous and appreciated dish is pasta al ragù (what the rest of the world calles “pasta bolognese” even though it has nothing to do with Bologna), an amazing pasta dish with fresh tomato passata and minced meat (not meatballs) cooked for a long time with spices to create wonderful tastes.

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One of the secrets to a true italian plate of pasta is the sauce: any true italian from the central and southern parts (where the really good food is) will have an annual stack of home made tomatoe passata from freshly picked farm tomatoes. The tomato season is in August, when people start queuing up to order their tomatoes (normally a minimum of 70 kg) and set the date for the family to go over to nonna’s house and make some magic! Many families in the south have a farming backgroung, so they can start as early as 4am!

My family is a bit more civilized, so we start around 9am, after a nice cornetto (croissant). Italian neighbors, expecially in the countryside, can be so friendly and will happily help you if they can. Ours would lend us the machinery to seal the bottles. After having cleaned the tomatoes and botttles, the first step is to cook the tomatoes in a huge cauldron (they look just like the ones used by witches in the films), once their skin starts to split, they need to get moved to the tomato presser (it creates the sauce), add salt, put them in bottles (with a bit of basil) and finally seal the bottles in water (this takes the longest amount of time, but not very strenious).

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The bottles are ready! But it’s important to not leave them in the boiling water for too long otherwise they might explode and you will end up with armageddon in you garden and I can promise you, it’s not very nice. Once the bottles are done everyone has a partyin which the cook fresh pasta, invite the neighbors and friends and everyone celebrates. How could you not love Italy!

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