Dear Pasta Lover! Buon giorno from beautiful Verona in North East Italy! I hope you are all staying safe and well. |
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I was about to start writing a new newsletter about our tomato crop and what we do with our beautiful home-grown tomatoes, when I remembered that in July 2020 I wrote a similar newsletter! So, I decided to cheat a little and repeat much of last year's 'passion for pomodori' newsletter. We have more or less the same crop this year and are planning to make our homemade tomato sauce and dried tomatoes too. I also have many more subscribers than a year ago, so I'm sure a lot of you will not have read this newsletter. And if you did, I hope you'll forgive the repeat! It was interesting and a little sad when I looked back at newsletters from a year ago to realize how long our lives have been impacted by Covid-19. Although the situation is different because many of us have been vaccinated and, at least in Italy, we don't have lockdowns, life is still nowhere near normal! I do hope I won't be writing the same thing in July 2022! |
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It's tomato season and I have just spent the morning picking tomatoes from our veg garden. We have 3 types of tomato plants this year! Cherry tomatoes, small date tomatoes (datterini in Italian) and beefsteak tomatoes called Costoluto Fiorentino. In general, Italians call these large tomatoes cuore di bue, meaning oxheart! |
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The bigger beefsteak tomatoes are mostly used for salads in Italy, particularly caprese salad. And, that's how I usually serve them, except when I make pomarola, a tomato sauce from Tuscany (see recipe link below). The other two types of tomatoes can be used in many different ways. We make pasta sauce with them, roast them and use them in salads. Best of all, we dry them and then preserve them in olive oil with some garlic and peperoncino (red chili pepper). I love to make Sicilian sun-dried tomato pesto with my dried tomatoes too! |
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In fact, I have 3 trays of cherry tomatoes in our food dryer as I write this newsletter, as well as a sauce of datterini simmering on the stove! A pretty industrious and productive morning! |
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My dried tomatoes in preserving jars |
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I have always found it interesting that although tomatoes have become a symbol of Italian cuisine, they only actually entered the Italian kitchen on a grand scale in 1800s! According to food historians, the first tomatoes in Europe were transported here by the Spanish Conquistadors from South America in the 1600s. They called them 'tomatl' (actually an Aztec word). Unlike the Spanish, Italians didn't take to tomatoes quickly. In fact, most people thought they were poisonous. Subsequently, tomatoes were only used as ornamental plants. It actually took more than 200 years for tomatoes and tomato sauce, as we know it, to become popular among Italians! |
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF ITALIAN TOMATOES |
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Of course, as you can imagine, from the 19th century onwards the cultivation of tomatoes in Italy really took off. Nowadays there are around 300 varieties of tomatoes cultivated here! Yes 300! Some of these you may know, others probably not! |
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Just picked cherry tomatoes |
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Needless to say, the most well-known Italian tomato is the San Marzano. San Marzano tomatoes have an elongated shape and firm pulp. They were originally cultivated in the small town of San Marzano sul Sarno, near Naples and were first grown in volcanic soil in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. This tomato is mostly used for being preserved peeled (best canned tomatoes are San Marzano). However, here in Italy it is also widely used to make tomato passata at home and in pasta sauces and ragu. Another well-known and widely appreciated variety of tomatoes is Pachino tomatoes from the south-east coast of Sicily! The Pachino tomato is actually four different varieties, all characterized by a full taste and a firm pulp that is fragrant and very very sweet. In the Italian kitchen, these tomatoes are used raw in salads, side dishes, cold summer pasta, bruschetta, pesto and to season pizzas and focaccias. |
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Tomatoes in our veg garden |
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The 'pomodorino vesuviano' or pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio is a cherry tomato still grown on the slopes of the volcano Vesuvius, Naples. This tomato is a favourite of mine. It has an intense red colour and is ideal for preparing sauces and preserves. Vesuviano tomatoes are the pride of Neapolitan cuisine. They are used in many traditional recipes, such as spaghetti with clams and to flavor the famous Neapolitan pizza. There's no way I can write about all the varieties of Italian tomatoes here but others to look out for are pomodoro tondino di Manduria (round tomatoes from Manduria, Puglia), pomodoro camone di Sardegna (camone tomatoes from Sardinia) and pomodoro di Belmonte (a type of beefsteak tomato from Calabria). The latter can grow up to 1.5kgs in weight! |
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Tomatoes ready to be dried in the food dryer |
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HOMEMADE PASSATA OR TOMATO SAUCE |
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Despite the fact that Italian supermarkets have a wide range of excellent quality ready-made tomato passata, homemade is still very traditional. At this time of year many Italian supermarkets sell packs of glass or mason jars, and a kitchen tool Italians call a 'passaverdura', a manually operated food mill. |
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Making tomato passata using a passavedure |
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The word 'passata' comes from the verb passare, meaning to go through. This is because tomato passata is obtained by passing the tomatoes through the blades and the holes of the food mill used to make passata. As the summer progresses supermarkets and farmers markets sell cases of San Marzano or other sauce tomatoes for those who don't grow their own. And many Italians set about making their favourite cooking ingredient. Passata has nothing in it but ripe tomatoes. If you add garlic or herbs then, in reality, it's a tomato sauce not passata. |
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Tuscan Pumarola Tomato Sauce |
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Have you ever made homemade passata or tomato sauce? |
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Affliate Link - Click On The Image to Visit the Shop |
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I recently wrote a newsletter about making homemade pasta using my new pasta dough press. Did you read it? I'm pretty thrilled with this traditional hand operated pasta making tool because making pasta with it is a lot faster and easier than doing it 100% by hand. If you want to get one yourself or learn more, check out my recent casarecce 2 ways post or click on this link to buy your own. |
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Second cookbook just published! |
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I'm excited to finally be able to tell you that the second volume of my Traditional Seasonal Pasta Recipes is now on sale as a pdf or hard copy! It took longer than we planned because of Covid related delays but luckily cookbooks are evergreen and never go out of fashion! |
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Check out my new shop page for online pasta courses and other pasta related products! |
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Check out some of the best pasta recipes on the blog to use fresh tomatoes and/or homemade tomato sauce in! |
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Without the thousands of blog visitors, Facebook followers and newsletter subscribers who love pasta as much as I do, The Pasta Project wouldn't be the success it is today! So, I'd like to take this opportunity to send you a heartfelt thank you for being a Pasta Project subscriber! All the best from Verona, Italy |
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Do make sure to add The Pasta Project to your contact list so that new e-books and newsletters won't get sent to your spam folder |
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