Passata di Pomodoro - Tomato Passata

I'm hosting Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I'm featuring these lovely vine-ripened tomatoes.


Making passata is something you would do at the height of tomato season, when they are in plentiful supply and fully ripened by the sun and your tomato of choice would most likely be a wonderful San Marzano - though I've really enjoyed using coeur de beouf as I've found them to have excellent flavour and a superb weight to volume conversion, that is, you'll get a lot of juice out of them as you cook them down.

As I was in Italy when tomatoes were coming to the end of their season, I found a good alternative in these vine ripened tomatoes.



Passata di Pomodoro - Tomato Passata

2kgs vine ripened tomatoes, rinsed and quartered
1 garlic clove (optional)
extra virgin olive oil
This is such an easy recipe and can be done with any quantity of tomatoes - you could also apply the method and use good canned Italian tomatoes - make sure you use whole canned tomatoes for a better result.

Pour a generous glug of good olive oil in a saucepan and place over a low heat. Tumble in the prepared tomatoes and garlic clove (if using) - give it a stir and then let it simmer.



Stir it occasionally and cook until the tomatoes have broken down and are mushy.



To make the best passata you need a mouli and the reason for this can be illustrated in the next photo.



If you were to put your softened tomatoes into a blender or food processor, what happens is that you end up chopping up the skin and seeds - these two things add bitterness to the passata and dull it's flavour. Whereas in the mouli, the seeds and skin are all left behind and you end up with a passata that is pure sweet tomato flavour.

At this stage you can store the passata as it is or return the passata to the stove and simmer it for another 10 to 15 minutes to reduce it - a thicker passata is great for using on a pizza base.

For short term storage - keep it in the fridge in a sealable container - long term, preserve it in bottles or jars.

There's still time to join in with - C'è ancora tempo per partecipare con - Weekend Herb Blogging.

Send your posts to haalo AT cookalmostanything.com
with WHB#414 in the subject line and the following details:

• Your name
• Your Blog Name/URL
• Your Post URL
• A photo, 400px wide