Passata Day

It's been 12 years since I was last involved in a Passata Day.  I tried to organise bulk tomatoes when I was first in central Australia, but it was just too hard, and too expensive.  However, while on the hunt for daikon radishes in Alice Springs I came upon a fruit and veg wholesaler who was prepared to get me boxes and boxes (8 X 16kg  in total) of beautiful ripe sauce tomatoes.

So yesterday was Passata Day.

We were a bit nervous about our number of bottles, the weather.. many things to be concerned about... but it happened, and joyful it was. And we ended up with over 100 bottles of beautiful red passata.  Recipe to come.

Stuffed Conchiglioni

Many years ago, in the early 1990's, I worked as an adult literacy teacher in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.. Airport West, to be exact. And as is often the case in my life, the focus of the class morphed from reading and writing, to food... or reading and writing through food. The class was made up of middle-aged Greek and Italian migrants who had been retrenched for the clothing, textile and footwear factories... something to do with Mr Keating's new world order. I had one student, Pasquale, younger than my other students and originally from Calabria whose pre-occupation with food paled my own.

Pasquale would bring to class fresh bread his wife had made that morning in their wood fired oven, salami made from pigs he had hand fed and slaughtered, omelettes made with yolks only and streaked with finely grated carrot and he ate everything with birds eye chillies. One day he brought in a plate of conchliglioni (giant pasta shells) stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and a seemingly simple tomato sauce that tasted amazing... and he explained to me how to make the dish...
Tip: I search high and low for these shells, and have been known to carry them in my hand luggage from distant locations. (If you cannot find them, you could use cannelloni, or some large spiral pasta.)

Ingredients
200 - 250 gms Conchiglioni shells
300 gm Ricotta
Parsley
Bunch Spinach
1 egg
Parmesan Cheese
Nutmeg (optional)
2-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
500gm fresh, ripe Roma tomatoes (or 2 tins)
1/2 bottle of tomato puree (salt and tomato only in ingredients)
Small piece of pork on the bone (raw)
Fresh basil
Salt & Pepper

Method Sauce

1. Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pot until soft.
2. Add fresh tomatoes and cook down.
3. Add tomato puree and pork bone and about a half litre of water.
4. Bring to simmer, and continue to cook for around one hour.
5. Strain sauce through a fine strainer, making sure you get as much of the pulp as possible.

Method Conchiglione

1. Clean and trip spinach and cook briefly in large pot.
2. Strain, and when cool chop finely.
3. Place in mixing bowl with Ricotta, chopped parsley, egg and grated parmesan, and mix through. (Optional: add sauteed onions and garlic for more flavour.)
4. 4. Taste, and add pepper, salt, grated nutmeg or more parmesan to your taste.
5. Put aside.
6. At the same time, bring a large pot filled with salted water to the boil.
7. Add the pasta, and cook for half the allocated time on the packet.
8. Strain, and return to a bowl with cool salted water.

Method: Assembly

1. Place around a desertspoon of filling in each shell and place in overproof baking tray, facing upward.
2. Continue with the rest of the shells and filling.
3. 
4. Pour over sauce, fresh basil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a good dribble of olive oil.
5. Cover with alfoil and bake in medium to hot over for 20 minutes, then remove alfoil and continue cooking for around 10 to 15 minutes until the top is brown.
   
6. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with extra parmesan.

Enjoy!

Tomato

Tomatoes are in season, and I just looked at my entry this time last year, and sure enough, it was tomatoes. This year - 2011 - I'm talking about doing puree, which is more than I've done for the past 10 years, ie. talking....so who knows.. it might even happen. Chances are though, I won't get around to organising a bulk load of roma tomatoes from Adelaide, so instead I will make do with heaps of tomato bruschetta..

A word about tomatoes... tomatoes are now available year round, possibly because Australia is such a vast continent there is always somewhere they are in season.. however, because most of our produce in Alice Springs comes from Adelaide and the southern states, they are generally best around this time of year. I always have a weakness for very ripe Roma Tomatoes.. I will try the vine-ripened ones of of season, but they're not my favourite. One variety you cannot get in shops is the ox-heart. I've purchased ox-heart tomatoes in north Queensland and Darwin, generally from road-side shops or market gardens, but nowhere else... I have now resorted to attempting to grow them myself. (Stay posted... they have raised their little heads already and will soon be relocated to a big grown-up garden bed...)

Ox-heart are wonderful eating tomatoes, but I don't know about cooking with them. Tomato topping for Bruschetta.. yes, I would use Romas or ox-hearts.. but remember, your tomatoes must be ripe, this means they are red all way through, not just the skin.

Bruschetta refers to the bread, with garlic and olive oil... but what I am going to give you the recipe for is the topping.

Tomato topping for Bruschetta Recipe
Ingredients
5 ripe roma tomatoes (peeled, seeded and chopped)
2-3 cloves good garlic, preferably organic
fresh basil
2 tablespoons or more of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
Mix everything together and taste for seasoning...

If you're feeling lazy... don't bother peeling and seeding tomatoes.. it will give you a more watery mixture and some added texture, but still delicious.

Focaccia de Patata (aka Baked Gnocchi)

Many years ago, my eldest sister returned to Australia after spending a few months with a family in Lecce (Southern Italy) with a new take on Italian cooking. Cream based pasta sauces ? Dried figs with bitter almonds and mandarin peel, and this, one of my most favourite recipes.

Focaccia de Patata is an alternative to traditional boiled gnocchi, much easier to make, and better tasting. This is also one of those great recipes for remote living. Almost all the essential ingredients are long lasting or available in most remote communities. (Although you will need to tap into that store of frozen parmesan in your freezer.)

Just a word about potatoes. Old potatoes are good, and those best suited for mashing. (Do not use waxy potatoes. Apparently desiree and Toolangi delight are good, and I also like binji).

Another word about the dough - don't overwork it, and whatever you don't use a machine to make the dough. It just won't work.

FOCACCIA DE PATATA
INGREDIENTS
Dough
4 -5 potatoes, peeled and sliced (around 500 - 600 gms)
salt
2 eggs
50 gms plain flour
50 gms SR flour
(or any combination of cornflour, gluten free - around 100 gms in total)
200 gm Ricotta (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (Italian or Australian, not prepackaged or pre-grated)

Sauce
1 medium onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
Tin tomatoes
Tomato puree
(Replace the above with fresh tomatoes if available.)
Piece of green capsicum
salt and pepper

Assembly ingredients
Olive Oil
Black olives, seeds removed and sliced in half; or
Diced eggpplant that has been salted and baked in the oven.
Parmesan Cheese

IMPLEMENTS
One lasagne baking dish, or pyrex baking dish

INSTRUCTIONS
Dough

1. Peel potatoes and slice.
2. Place potatoes in salted water in a medium-large saucepan and cook on a medium-to-high heat until falling apart.
3. Strain well and allow to cool.
4. Place the cooked potatoes in large bowl and mash with fork or potato masher. (Do not use a food processor or stab blender.)
5. Add eggs, ricotta and flour. The amount of flour may depend on the dense-ness of the potatoes.
6. Pull mixture together. (Do not over knead). Set aside.

Sauce

1. Heat oil, add garlic pieces and cook for around 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped onions and piece of green capsicum and cook until onions are well cooked.
3. Add tomatoes and cook down.
4. Add salt and remove green capsicum. (A pinch of sugar should be added if tomatoes are too acid.)

Assembly

1. Dip a table spoon of dough mixture in olive oil, remove and place on base of tray. Continue until the tray is completed covered and resembles a focaccia. (You should have about a third of the mixture left.)
2. Pour tomato sauce over dough mixture.
3. Next place olives (or eggplant) evenly over mixture, followed by fresh basil.
4. Dip smaller spoonfuls of mixture into olive oil and dot/drop on top of dough.
5. When finished, sprinkle over with grated parmesan.
6. Bake in medium to hot oven for between 30 and 40 minutes. Place alfoil or baking paper over top if burning occurs.
7. When finished, let the focaccia sit for around 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with fresh green salad.

Best Smoky Eggplant Recipes

These are two recipes on the same theme: one Indian, the other middle eastern. The first part is the same.

STAGE 1

1. Place two eggplants on a barbecue grill.
2. Turn regularly until the skin is crisp and the eggplant is heavy and soft.
3. When cool, peel the skin off the eggplant and discard. Roughly chop the eggplant pulp and place into bowl.

MARK'S BABAGANOUSH RECIPE
Ingredients
2 large eggplants
Lime or lemon juice
Garlic (preferably organic)
Tahini
Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method
4. Place all ingredients into bowl (except olive oil) and puree with stab blender, until smooth and fluffy. Adjust ingredients to your taste.
5. Place in serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil.


PUNJAB EGGPLANT PUREE RECIPE
(Adapted from a Charmaine Solomon's very old - circa 1978 - "Indian - Cooking for Pleasure")

Ingredients
2 large eggplants
Oil
1 large, or 2 small onions
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cummin seeds
3 dried red chillis (omit for children) with seeds removed
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes or 2 fresh tomatoes (skinned, seeded and chopped)
Bunch fresh coriander
3 spring onions (optional)
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (optional)

Method
4. Prepare eggplants as above.
5. Heat oil in large cast iron fry pan or pot, and fry onions over a low heat until well cooked (soft).
6. At the same time, dry roast coriander, cummin seeds and chilli in fry pan and pound in mortar and pestle.
7. Add spices to onion mixture and cook for around one minute, then add tomatoes and eggplant and cook for around 5 to 10 minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates.
8. Add coriander, springs onions, salt and garam masala and simmer uncovered for around one minute.

Serve warm with rice. A great accompaniment to an Indian vegetarian meal, for example with vegetable kofta or palak paneer.

(A variation is to replace onions with asafoetida)

Tomatoes aka Pomodora

Tomatoes are in season now in Alice Springs, which really means they are a good price in the shops and they're in season in the southern states of Australia. It must be late summer or autumn. (Local tomatoes are a rarity.)
I'm happy that tomatoes are good, but sad that there are never ample quantities of tomatoes in Alice Springs to warrant a big Tomato Gathering.
I do love a Good Tomato Gathering and a good tomato.
I don't think I had ever really tasted a good tomato until I went to Italy many years ago and ate fresh sliced tomatoes on a plate with olive oil and oregano. The tomatoes were sweet and red all the way through. Not the pale orange tasteless fruit I was accustomed to.
My favourite is a roma tomato, it looks good and tastes good and can be used fresh and in cooking. My second favourite is the ox-heart type. They don't look great. They're weird shaped and have imperfections. But they taste fantastic.
Tomatoes must be ripe to in order to really appreciate their flavour, both fresh and in cooking. I refuse to put tomato in a salad unless it is sweet and ripe. And not a fan of sun-dried tomato, unless they're home made, by me.
On the off-chance you come across enough tomatoes for a Tomato Gathering, a tomato puree making session is a lot of fun, and will ensure great tasting pasta dishes for the next twelve months.
Here is my favourite recipe for tomato puree, taught to me by the Italian parents of a friend in Melbourne. But before you begin there is a lot of must haves, that extend beyond the notion of implements.

MUST HAVES

• One very large pot
• One very large wooden spoon for the very large pot
• A large gas burner or plenty of wood and something to put the pot on
• Large quantity of clean glass bottles with clean screw top lids.
• Vegetable knives
• Tomato puree machine (preferable electric)
• An old bath tub (not essential)
• Lots of large clean bowls or food grade buckets
• Lots of clean pieces of cloth (old table clothes)
• Lots of helpers

If you don't have an electric puree machine, then perhaps make smaller quanities. It is very tiresome using a hand cranked puree machine. A moulee will drive you crazy, so don't attempt it, and opt for preserved whole tomatoes instead.
One last tip - this is an outdoor activity. Don't attempt to do it in a kitchen unless it is an outdoor kitchen.

INGREDIENTS

• Boxes of ripe roma tomatoes
• Salt
• Fresh basil

METHOD

1. Wash and sort through the tomatoes. Throwing away any that look rotten or not worth cooking. You many need to spread the tomatoes on a table.
2. Cut each tomato in halves or quarters and put them in a pot. This is a good chance to cut out any bad bits.
3. When the pot is full, put it on a fire or gas burner. Heat through until the pot begins to boil and the skins begin to pull away from the tomato flesh. Stir the pot regularly with the large wooden spoon to prevent sticking.
4. Pour the tomatoes back into the box they came from, which has now been washed and lined with two layers of cloth. Drain off excess liquid.
5. Now you are ready to start pureeing. Feed the partially cooked tomatoes into the puree machine. You may need to catch the puree in a clean bucket or bowl underneath the long spout. Another bucket will be needed for the skins and seeds which will be great for compost.
6. Once the full batch is done, add some salt to the puree and stir it through. (Don't bottle the puree until you have put through all the tomatoes from the pot, as the puree will get thicker the further you get to the bottom.)
7. Pour the mixture into the clean bottles and put three leaves of basil in the top of each. Screw on the lids tight.
8. Place all the bottles long side down in the bottom of a bath tub which has been place over a fire (or the pot for the puree). Between each layer of glass bottles, but a layer of cloth to stop the bottles moving against each other. Pour water over the pot/into the bath tub with a hose.
9. Heat the tub/pot and let the bottles boil for about three hours.
10. Let the bottles come to room temperature before storing.

Make sure you have a large quantity of your favourite pasta ready to go at the end of the day. The fresh puree is great as a simple pasta sauce, particularly when fresh.

VARIATIONS
1. Salt the tomatoes and let them drain overnight. Feed them through the puree machine as per the above recipe.
2. Puree the tomatoes raw (uncooked). This works, but you need to feed the tomatoes through at least three times to get all the pulp.
Enjoy!