I clutch a bottle of homemade tomato puree and travel through time.
Memories flow like the hands of a clock gone mad until the mechanism uncovers the right one.

I remember summers in the countryside and the giant cauldrons where bottles of tomato passata cooked. Not everyone knows that Emilia-Romagna is a northern Italian region where preparing tomato sauce and passata is a deeply rooted tradition.

If I wander through memories, I see her again, a little giant, surrounded by the cauldrons hung on stacks of burning wood, sometimes resting on makeshift shims, the handkerchief over her face to protect her nose and mouth from the hellish heat.

The boiling air darts from the bundles to the pots. Heat is so intense that it seems to have hands, feet, and thoughts. Like a captain at the helm of his ship, the azdora stands in the middle of the threshing floor and governs the operations that will lead the ship into safe waters.

Grandma Sara, my maternal grandmother, was the deus ex machina of those days for so many years.
Although she no longer lived there, the small world from which she came recognized her as the main Azdora, and that made her the only possible conductor for a concert that began at dawn and ended at dusk amid so much hard work, the heat of the fires and the relentless heat of summer.

Summer, the season of preserves

Once upon a time, there were large bonfires, and families gathered to transform fruits and vegetables from perishable foods into products that would last for the entire year cycle. It is impossible to forget the colorful and inviting glimpse of jars and bottles arranged from heaven to earth on the shelves of the home cellar that served as a pantry.

The period of the great bonfires ran from July to September. The needed work brought families together to do hard work, exhausting because of the heat, yet considered necessary. It was also a way to get together. Perhaps it was precisely the convivial nature of this ritual that made bearable that great toil consumed next to massive fires under a lava sky and above an earth made incandescent by the summer sun.

In July, jams, fruit syrups, and the first pickles were prepared. From the middle of August to early September, it was still time for jams, but the big star was mainly tomatoes. Grape juices came later with the harvest.

The preparation of the bonfire and the process were the same, whether it was passata or jam.

There were the bundles of wood to be prepared. Large black cauldrons were placed on top. Inside the cauldrons filled with water, wrapped and held in place by dishcloths, jars, and bottles took their places. After boiling, many hours had to pass before the contents could be taken out, and in the meantime, there was more work to be done: clean the farmyard and prepare dinner.

With darkness came the end of a long and tiring day’s work. At that point, the atmosphere became festive.
Some drank a glass of wine, slicing a salami while laughter refreshed , finally, the air.

It was a choral work that involved everyone, women first and foremost but also husbands and children; it was a community and family work in which grandparents, children, relatives, neighbors, and friends took part; it was a time where bonds and relationships were strengthened, season after season, one jar at a time.

Tomato passata, passata di pomodoro

This is my family recipe, although there is no written text. Once there was no recipe for passata, everyone knew how to make it, and, of course, everyone made it their own way. These notes are based on my own memories, which, for once, I have mixed with those of my husband, who, like me, remember the big bonfires and the work required to make tomato puree.

Before I leave you with these notes smelling of summer and good memories, know this:

basil is optional; you can add it if you like. I just make a few quarts of passata with its scent.
Take a bite out of one of the tomatoes you will use. Is it sour? Add one or two tablespoons of sugar, 20 to 40 g per 2-3 kg of tomatoes, to correct the acidity. If it’s not acidic, add no sugar.
Salt, a pinch, at the end. Season the passata later when you will use it with other ingredients.
You can process even a small amount of tomatoes and use the masher without needing any other tools. I usually process about 15 kg of tomatoes and bought an electric tomato strainer.
Some people wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut them and cook the pieces directly in bottles. This is not my way. The passata is smooth, without peels.
Be careful with cherry tomatoes. Some people put the whole in bottles and cook them but they tend to become acidic quickly. I don’t make them anymore.
Sauce or puree (passata)? If you don’t remove skins and seeds and add ingredients like garlic or onion, you make sauce, not passata.
Use round passata tomatoes or oblong tomatoes like San Marzano.
Did you know that the tomato, which has seeds and comes from a flower, is a fruit?

Two recipes with tomatoes

Parsley sauce recipe: sometimes, I make a few bottles of it.
Artusi’s tomato sauce: a must-try!

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