Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Reidragon on August 12, 2007, 09:20
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We have a glut of tomatoes in the GH and due to blight need to use them pretty quick before they rot.
Anyone got a nice recipe for pasta sauce?
Preferably one that can be frozen.
:D Thanks. Andy
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Hi Reidragon
Just to let you know what I do with my tomies. I don't do quantities, just chuck it in the pan.
Soften garlic and onion, chuck in some ripped basil, put in toms peeled and deseeded (I keep the seeds in though). Increase heat, allowing to simmer until reduced. (I would put in a little black pepper and some oregano at this point though). Cool and freeze in bags.
You can use this for soups, casseroles and sauces. It is good, very very good. :lol:
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As above, but put a good splash of red wine vinegar on the onions and reduce to almost gone, it really adds a lot to the sauce. A small amount of sugar is also good to sweeten the sauce up. For a more rounded flavour stir in a little mascarpone cheese at the end of cooking.
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a good splash of worcester sauce as well
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Thanks allotmentnut I like that one, will try it out.
Thanks also to Ice Hocket Mad and Muntjac for the add in's they wiil be something to try once I get started.
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Put in a tray with oil, salt & garlic and roast until skins start to split. Run through a mill. Buonissima! Can be frozen or better still, bottled.
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That sound great Contadino
Do you leave the garlic or chop it :?: Also how long does it last in the bottles :?:
In Italy you really know how to cook so I bet that tastes fantastic. :D :D
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Whole peeled or unpeeled garlic cloves, and it'll last at least a year.
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You are a star :D :D
We picked a load of tomies last night and I am off to the kitchen now to try that out.
Will let you know how it went.
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5lb toms chopped roughly .skins on . add 1/4 cup olive oil .big heap fresh chopped basil . 4 italian herb oxo cubes . all the fresh herbs you can pick . NO PARSLEY . cook on simmer for and hour and a half add 12 roasted tomatoes roast em till loverly n dark and they have split open , blend and add to sauce .chop fine and fry off 1lb pancetta or streaky bacon till crisp ,add to sauce pan bring to boil for 2 mins and turn off the heat ./ allow to cool for 30 mins . bottle /or freeze in yoghurt pots /. cut plastic tops from freezer bags to fit them and secure with little strip sellotape //
warning . alllow 1/2 inch clear for expanding ice
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Another good one, will have to wait and hope we get a load more tomies.
Have now got 5 jars of Contadino's sauce and it is very good indeed.
Thanks :lol:
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Contadino will your sauce store in sterilised bottles for a year with no need to put the bottled sauce in a water bath to preserve it?
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Contadino will your sauce store in sterilised bottles for a year with no need to put the bottled sauce in a water bath to preserve it?
I would advocate the water bath or equivalent treatment. Reason is that you need to kill off any bacteria / spores / whatever which are introduced on the lid or in the airspace above the contents.
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What is a water bath WG. How do you use it, and what does it do :?: :?: :?:
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jars in the oven on a tin with water in it :wink:
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jars in the oven on a tin with water in it :wink:
Yup, or a large pot with lid high enough to process your jars.
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Before putting sauce in jars, either put them in the oven as Munty suggests, or rinse out with boiling water.
We stack filled jars up in a huge (50ltr) saucepan, each wrapped in material so they don't knock against each other, then fill so that water covers the lid of the top layer. Light a fire under the saucepan and boil for 20-30 mins. I believe that this process sterilises the sealed jars. We process about 50 jars at a time this way.
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a huge (50ltr) saucepan
Now that IS a water bath for you, allotmentnut.
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Hey, if you're gonna do something, you may as well do it big. :)
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So I was right - you do use a water bath Contadino. That is one hell of a big pan!!
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Yes. The wife's making sauce today and suggested I post up a photo of it all happening later. Will try.
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Contadino what variety of tomato do you grow for sauce making? I assume it will be a plum tomato but which one?
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We grow Tombolini and Ciliegi which we use to make salsa in the summer (i.e. fresh sauce), and buy in San Marzano about now for winter (i.e. bottled sauce.) The recipe posted earlier in this thread was using Tombolini.
Next year we're going to be trying a minature version of San Marzano called Luchale (sp?) for winter sauce - it has a lower water content so we won't have to water them as much as SM's, and less need to boil down to reduce the salsa.
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Thanks for the names Contadino. I will start Googling!!
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Thanks for the names Contadino. I will start Googling!!
Try http://www.seedsofitaly.com/
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Thanks WG but unfortunately they don't stock them. Up to now Google has drawn a blank.
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Thanks WG but unfortunately they don't stock them. Up to now Google has drawn a blank.
:?: Their website lists San Marzano & three other F1 hybrids from it.
Perhaps Contadino could be persuaded to mail you some? Tomoto seed has a long shelf life.
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I'm looking for the Tombolini variety that Contadino uses. I will find them - the OH says I'm like a dog with a bone - I prefer determined!
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I can send you some Tombolini seeds. PM me your details. This year is the first time I've tried seed-saving, so they may be a bit hit-n-miss.
I found out today that Luchale is a dialect name - when I find someone who speaks Italian I'll find out what they're really called. Ciliegi is Italian for Cherry, so I guess you'll be able to source them yourself..?
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Thank you so much. That is very kind and generous of you Contadino. Can I send you any seeds in return?
When you saved the tomato seeds did you let them go mouldy for a few days first?
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We tried water bath jarred tomato sauce and I got sick from them, same with frozen, so now I put all my tom sauce jars in the big pressure canner and haven't regretted the extra effort. 35 min. at 12 lbs pressure for 1 L jars. Guess my innards are more tetchy than other people's.
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Just got back into the thread as fell down stairs breaking wrist and spraining ankle. (Moral of the story is 'she who smuggles pasta sauce to bedroom falls down :lol: :lol: )
Thanks for info on water baths. Feel a bit of a wally :oops: Should have thought that one through.
Still the sauce won't last that long anyway. Already given 3 jars away to the chaps on the site who keep giving me their advise. One good turn deserves another.
Will know how to prepare bottles next time. Thanks.