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Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- “Strained tomatoes, also known as passata di pomodoro, are crushed tomatoes passed through a sieve, creating a smooth and versatile sauce.”
- 60 kg (135 lbs) of fresh vine-ripened San Marzano or Roma tomatoes (organic and home-grown if you can)
- 3 Kg (7 lbs) onions roughly chopped
- 5 L extra virgin olive oil
- 4 bunches of fresh basil
- 850 g of coarse Mediterranean sea salt
- Garlic (optional)
Preparation
Step 1
Equipment required
• Flour propane burner
• 1 x 20 lbs propane tank
• 1 x 80 L pot
• 1 x large wooden spoon (to mix ingredients)
• 1 large ladel
• 1 large strainer
• 1 large colander spoon to pick up tomatoes
• 2 x 18 L plastic pales (to collect tomato pulp and tomato residue)
• Manual or electric extractor
• 6 cases of 12mason jars
• Jar grabber/clamp (to pick up the hot jars)
Basic Passata Di Pomodoro / Tomato Puree
• Wash tomatoes and cut into quarters or halves to check for grubs or bad parts.
• Transfer into 80L pot and add 10 to 15 L of water.
• Cook at medium heat for about 2 to 3 hours stirring every hour or so until the skin of the tomatoes start peeling apart. Let rest for 1 hour.
• Once tomatoes are cooled down, strain the tomatoes into the extractor machine* (you don't need to chop or peel the produce).
• Push the tomato pulp out through the screen. Use a wooden plunger to help press the tomatoes through the hopper and into the scroll/screen.
• As you keep 'squeezing', the skin and seeds continue along the scroll (not through the screen, or sieve part), and come out the other end into a bowl, while the tomato pulp or puree slides down the drain tray into a separate bowl. As the bowl fills, add the tomato puree to the cooking pot, and quickly replace the bowl under the extractor drain tray.
• Once the pulp is ready, cook for about 3 hours in the
80 L pot and let it reduce to a passata-like consistency before transferring into sterilised mason jars.
*You can use a manual strainer if you don’t have an electric one.
Canning and Conserving
• Carefully wash mason jars and lids in hot water (the dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle).
• Pour the tomato puree into hot sterilised jars. Once the jars are filled, close lid fairly tight, and transfer the jars into the 80 L pot with boiling water to seal (autoclad) and to pasteurize the product.
• Take jars out with a jar grabber/clamp and let rest till the lids of the mason jars pop in.
• Once cooled down, tighten the mason jars and shelve them for storage (shelf life: over a year).
Tips:
Recommendations are to add lemon juice or citric acid to the jars of sauce before processing. This increases their acidity and, therefore, the safety of the product being preserved. For No. 27 (900mls) or 31 (1000mls) sized jars,
- add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or 1/2 tsp of citric acid.
Notes:
Salsa Della Nonna
• Caramelise onions in 5 L of olive oil.
• Once onions are nice and golden, add the tomato passata/puree into the pot by batches of 10 L.
• Once all the tomato puree is transferred, add basil leafs (roughly cut or entire leafs).
• Add salt and cook an extra hour to make the sea salt melt and reduce the sauce.
• Ready to bottle.