{"id":2302,"date":"2017-09-04T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=2302"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:59:16","slug":"passata-di-pomodoro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/04\/passata-di-pomodoro\/","title":{"rendered":"Passata di Pomodoro (Homemade Tomato Puree)"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 4, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes in the late summer my mother and Annie Castagnola would get together to \u201cput up\u201d tomatoes. I don\u2019t really remember paying much attention to the process but I was fascinated by the jars and jars of red orbs sitting on an enamel table in Annie\u2019s garage at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

Annie lived in a jewel-box of a mid-century-modern house on a quiet residential street in Westmont, a suburb of Johnstown, PA where I grew up. She was always immaculately made-up, her hair coiffed, and frequently dressed in muumuus.<\/p>\n

She was also a chain-smoker. There was a very large abalone shell on the coffee table on her side porch that served as a communal ashtray. I was always amazed at the number of cigarette butts that would collect in that shell over the course of a visit.<\/p>\n

Though Annie was a very good cook, she was mostly known for her baking. Some of you may remember me mentioning her in an early blog about Totos, Italian Chocolate Spice Cookies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Growing up we used a lot of canned tomatoes. My mother made her long-simmered Southern Italian Style Ragu most Sundays. Each batch used about a quart of canned tomatoes. The number of jars of tomatoes that my mother and Annie \u201cput up\u201d was nowhere near the 50 or so that would have been needed just to supply my family\u2019s Sunday dinner table, let alone what Annie needed.<\/p>\n

Those home-canned tomatoes, though, were a treat when they were used and a potent reminder of cultural heritage and a more agrarian family history.<\/p>\n

These days I turn our home-grown tomatoes into passata (puree) rather than canning whole tomatoes. It\u2019s easier. The results can be frozen successfully eliminating pressure canning at my 8000-foot elevation. And, since there aren\u2019t enough home grown tomatoes to supply all of our tomato-product needs (canned tomatoes, tomato puree and tomato paste being the primary ones) I\u2019ve opted for the most expedient option.<\/p>\n

Though we had more tomato plants when we lived in Chicago, I still use the same field mix of canestrini, lunghi, and beefsteak tomatoes to make passata.<\/p>\n

The canestrini, an heirloom variety, are grown from seeds that we brought back from Italy about 20 years ago. They were given to us by my husband\u2019s Great Uncle Faliero (Great Aunt Fidalma\u2019s husband). Every year, seeds are lovingly removed from several tomatoes, spread out on waxed paper, and allowed to dry. Since these are heirloom, and not hybrid, tomatoes, they breed true. The seeds are used to start the following year\u2019s tomato seedlings.<\/p>\n

Canestrini are meaty and don\u2019t have an excess of jelly surrounding the seeds. They can also be ugly if one\u2019s vision of a tomato is a perfectly formed red orb. The taste, however, is superior.<\/p>\n

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Canestrini tomatoes on the vine<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lunghi seeds are imported from Italy and are available domestically as are the beefsteak tomato seeds. Mostly we grow the beefsteak tomatoes for eating but there are always more than enough so they get put into the field mix for the passata.<\/p>\n

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Lunghi tomatoes<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making passata is really a breeze compared to canning whole tomatoes or making tomato paste. The tomatoes are washed, quartered, cored and coarsely chopped before being simmered into a pulp. They are then passed through an old-fashioned food mill, a step that only takes a few minutes, which eliminates the seeds and skin. They cook for about 2 \u00bd hours but it is mostly hands off other than the occasional stir.<\/p>\n

Leaving the seeds and surrounding jelly in the chopped tomatoes means that the cooking time is a bit longer than it might otherwise be but there are two distinct advantages. Getting the tomatoes ready to cook is really quick. Perhaps more important, though, is that the jelly surrounding the seeds contains loads of naturally occurring glutamates which boost the savory \u201cumami\u201d quotient of the tomatoes.<\/p>\n

If you have access to vine-ripe tomatoes, grab yourself 15 or 20 pounds and give this recipe a try. You won\u2019t be sorry!<\/p>\n

Click here <\/a>for a video showing the process of making tomato puree.<\/p>\n

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Passata di Pomodoro (Homemade Tomato Puree)<\/h2>\n
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This easy-to-make tomato puree can be frozen for later use. It brings a blast of late-summer goodness to winter meals. Ten to 20 pounds of tomatoes is a good amount to start with. If you are planning on using more than 20 pounds, I would either divide the tomatoes among several pots or find an extra-wide rondeau (a wide shallow pot) so that there is enough surface area to foster evaporation.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>3 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>3 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span> 20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>1<\/span> quart<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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