Home-Made Passata
In Italy, San Marzano plum tomatoes are grown almost exclusively for making passata for the
whole year. It’s then stored in sterilized jars and used for pasta sauce, pizzas etc.
Ingredients:
tomatoes (San Marzano 2, San Marzano Redorta or Roma)
about 1 teaspoon salt per jar
about 2 tablespoons olive oil per jar
Dip the tomatoes in boiling water to make removing the skin easier. Once peeled, push
them through a sieve so that there are no seeds in the passata. Alternatively, you can buy a passata machine that separates the skin and pips from the pulp with a turn of the handle, which
is infinitely quicker. You can flavour the passata at this stage with basil, chilli, thyme or whatever
you like. Add salt to taste and place in sterilized jars.
The reason for adding both the salt and the oil is that, apart from flavouring the passata, salt
is a preservative and the olive oil will form an airtight barrier on top of the jar, so add this last of
all before sealing. Seal the jars following the instructions opposite.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster