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.

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.

Beans with Tomato

Ingredients:
500 gms green beans (incl Italian wavy beans)
Virgin olive oil
3-4 cloves organic garlic
Salt & Pepper
Green capsicum
Fresh red chili
Tomato puree (preferable home made, but if bought ensure ingredients are tomatoes and salt only.)

Utensils:
Large frying pan with reasonable depth, or saucepan

Method:

1. Wash and top and tail beans. If beans are particularly fresh, leave the tails.
2. Crush garlic cloves and remove outer skin.
3. Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil on medium to low heat.
4. When warm, drop in garlic and a piece of green capsicum.
5. Cook for 5 minutes and add chili.
6. Cook for another 5 minutes being careful not to burn or brown the garlic as this will alter the flavour.
7. Add the raw beans and cook for another 2 minutes.
8. Add half a bottle of tomato puree and cook on a low heat for 5 to 10 minutes until beans are cooked to your taste.
9. Add salt and pepper to taste, and remove capsicum.
10. The sauce is ready when the oil starts to separate a bit from the tomato.
    

(Variation: If you have lots of ripe fresh tomatoes, chop them and add them before the beans and cook down for a few minutes before adding beans. Fresh tomatoes will taste heaps better.)


Great served with polenta or couscous or as an accompaniment to a Middle Eastern Meal.

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.

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!