[jambop]

Not a boast but it has been a good year for the old toms down here. I plants out two different plum type for tomato sauce Princip Borghese x 10, a bush type and San Marzano x 12. So this morning I harvested some of the PdB the photo is of about 75% of the tomatoes from three plants there are still some to ripen. It is going to be a great winter for Pasta !

[Mum2mj]

They look great 

[mumofstig]

  I think I need a bigger greenhouse 

[jambop]

Well today I bottled about 15L of passata for the Princip de Borghese tomatoes and will probably be doing the same for the san marzano's the flavour is amazing. At the end of season I will take the dregs of the lot and make a batch from that... we use a lot of passata

[Snoop]

Impressive!

I'd be interested to know what you think the difference is between the two varieties in terms of production, texture and flavour.

[LotuSeed]

How much do you reduce your passata? Do you season it at all?

[mumofstig]

I reduce mine until it's the same consistency as passata you buy 

I don't add seasoning to mine, if it's just tomatoes - but if it's got garlic/onions/herbs in it (ie if  it's a tomato sauce) then I do 

[jambop]

We have had a good sunny and quite dry summer this year so making the passata has not required too much cooking down because the tomatoes were not too full of water. I add nothing to my passata just very slowly bring the pan of tomatoes up to a simmer then when they are soft blitz them a bit and pass them through a windy sieve machiney type thingy which removes the seeds and skins. After that if the passata is a bit thin I gently simmer for a bit to get the right consistency then bottle it using a boiling water bath for 45 mins. The Princip de Borghese has given a nice sweet deep red passata... not even started on the San Marzano's yet going to give them a week or two yet but have made sauces with them. A beautiful big'ish tomato and very sweet but not as deep red as PdB but I had skinned them and there is a lot of intense coloured pulp just under the skin that I find you lose when skinning, I don't skin my passata tomatoes.

[Growster...]

We don't bottle toms, but we do just liquidise them, with the skins on if possible, and pop them into small plastic bags for the freezer.

If they're frozen in flat packs, the freezer drawer can take quite a few if they're stood on end...

The Sungold make a nice pastel colour, but the Marmande will be much redder...

[Growster...]

I reduce mine until it's the same consistency as passata you buy 

I don't add seasoning to mine, if it's just tomatoes - but if it's got garlic/onions/herbs in it (ie if  it's a tomato sauce) then I do 

Ok, Ok, Mums - you win!

We've just spent two hours doing just that, and it smells fabulous!

Pasta for lunch today - deffers! (and a sliced courgette chucked in for good measure)!

;0)

[JayG]

I eat the best tomatoes fresh, the rest get cooked down into pasta sauce for freezing - the key word is probably 'rustic'!

Couldn't even begin to contemplate peeling dozens of toms, so they get cooked down whole until fairly thick with home grown garlic and any shallots I think may not store very well. Some batches are blitzed, some get chopped courgette added towards the end, some get chopped parsley or basil - all the freezer containers get labelled with a descriptive code I have usually forgotten by the time I get to use them! 

[LotuSeed]

I use an attachment for my kitchenaid mixer to get rid of the skins and seeds. It's quite handy.

[Thrutchington]

Look fantastic those, well done