L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 34 L'Italo-Americano LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES Y ou know that old Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk is buried up his neck in Tribbles? That's what I feel like right now, because my tomato plants are producing baskets and baskets of Roma and San Marzano tomato every day. Urban gardening in Los Angeles has turned out to be pretty easy. Driven by the drought of last year, I ripped out my front lawn and put in raised planter beds with a drip system. I planted kale, Swiss chard, let- tuce greens and fava beans over the winter. As soon as I could put my hands on tomato starts, I got them in the ground. In Los Angeles, tomato plants can keep producing well into October. I found the biggest challenge with raised bed planti- ng is "tomato end rot." Tomatoes love calcium so you need to be constantly feeding them with a good organic fertil- izer. I put down a lot of calcium, too, using products found at gar- den stores made from ground oyster shells. Now comes the question – what to do with all these toma- toes? For this, I took a page off my Aunt Jennie who was a world-class canner. At first can- ning tomatoes seems like a daunting task, but if you're going for a simple strained sauce (a.k.a Marinara), it's pretty easy. So here's how to do it. You're going to need a good quantity of Ball jars (I use wide mouth 1-pint size), a canning lifter and a "food mill" with a small holed disk. This recipe will produce the perfect base to use with dishes later in the year. Keeping this simple with minimal salt and other seasonings allows you to be creative with the sauce in dishes. Also, I'm not going to even attempt at state quantities here. This all about how many tomatoes you can get your hands on! Homemade and Canned Tomato Sauce Ingredients and Directions: • One or more yellow onion, diced • 6 or so cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed and roughly chopped • Extra virgin olive oil • Washed and stemmed fresh Roma or San Marzano tomatoes • Several big sprigs of basil, leaves removed from stems (and discard stems) • 5 or 10 sprigs of thyme Instructions: 1. Place the tomatoes in a large heavy bottom pot, place on medium heat and drizzle in sev- eral teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil. Let the oil warm and then add the onions. Sprinkle a little salt on the onions and then cover to let them "sweat." Stir occasionally. 2. After the onions have soft- ened, add the garlic and let it slightly brown. 3.Add all the tomatoes to the pot (you can chop them up before you put them, but there's really no need) 4.Add the basil and thyme. 5.Give the whole pot a big tumbling toss with a wooden spoon and cover. The tomatoes with start to breakdown immedi- ately and should be completely broken down in about 30 to 45 minutes. You can help the process along by smashing toma- toes to the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. 6. Let the mixture cool some- what so it's easier to handle. Pick out the thyme stems but don't worry if you miss some, you'll catch them in the food mill. 7.Set up a food mill over another pot and ladle in the cooked tomatoes. Start cranking the food mill to get all the mois- ture out so you are just left with skins and seeds. Scrape off the pulp from the bottom of the food mill into the pot. Repeat until you've milled all the tomatoes. 8.Now sterilize the Ball jars and lids. You can do this either by running them through your dishwasher with no soap or in a big pot of boiling water. Be care- ful not to touch the inside of the jars or lids at this point. 9.Using a measuring cup or ladle, fill each jar to about a ½- inch below the rim with tomato sauce. Put the rubber ringed lid on the jar and the lightly screw the ring lid on – don't tighten it. 10. Now place the jars in another heavy bottom pot (depending on the number of jars, you may have to do this in batches). Add water around the jars until it reaches about middle of the ring lid. 11. Now this is the part when you should be very careful. You can easily burn yourself. Bring the water to a boil. Once it boils, "process" the sauce for 30 min- utes (you might have to add more water along if the water level lowers. 12. Using a canning lifter, remove the jars to a tray. In less then a minute, you should hear the lids "pop" as the vacuum in the jar is formed. You'll know this worked when the divot in the center rubber ring inverts down- ward. 13. Tighten the ring lid. Let the jars cool completely and store away in your cabinet or pantry for future use. This recipe will produce the perfect base to use with dishes later in the year. Photo by vkuslandia At first canning tomatoes seems like a daunting task, but if you're going for a simple strained sauce (a.k.a Marinara), it's pretty easy. Photo by dmitrimaruta JOSEPH BECCI Savor Summer all year long ... Homemade "canned" tomatoes

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