Italian Life At Its Most Enticing

Tomatoes are synonymous with Italian cuisine and are an integral ingredient to Italian cooking. Due to the sunshine and the ideal climate, Italians will eat freshly harvested, ripe tomatoes simply drizzled in oil with a sprinkling of salt.

Unfortunately many of the imported tomatoes we buy in the supermarket just do not compare flavour wise (see post: Mediterranean Cuisine) For this reason every summer I grow my own tomatoes, I buy San Marzano seeds online and try, given we don't have the Italian sunshine, to cultivate a good crop.

Due to their importance in Italian cuisine many people in rural areas still preserve tomatoes, whole families will gather together around a long table washing, cutting and placing tomatoes in containers ready for the boiling process to begin. The bottled tomatoes are placed in a large oil drum and placed over an open fire, the family will then take turns to tend to the fire throughout the night ensuring it doesn't go out.

My family lived in Bardi, Uncle Guido and auntie Lucilla were the towns chemists therefore they didn't farm, however, it was common for locals to supply them with produce such as preserved tomatoes. I remember being fascinated watching auntie Lucilla's cook collecting ingredients from the larder to prepare dinner. I remember rows of bottles (brown beer bottles) lined up along the shelves, of course they didn't contain beer but preserved tomatoes. I was very aware of the different flavours we were eating in spite of the fact that my nonna and mum cooked Italian food at home, obviously this was down to the ingredients.

To make a really good tomato sauce the brand of tinned tomato is key, I favour San Marzano certified peeled tomatoes imported from southern Italy. Many tinned tomatoes have been canned before being properly ripened, consequently they are colourless and watery and nothing you can do will make them flavoursome.

Basic tomato sauce

Recipe
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes, chopped
A handful of fresh basil, finely chopped, alternatively use dried oregano
Salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan
Add the garlic and sweat until softened
Add tomatoes and basil, season and simmer gently for 25 minutes

Baked pasta with tomato sauce and cheese

Recipe
400g pasta, I use pasta shells
1 quantity basic tomato sauce (as above)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 balls mozzarella cheese
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6
Cook pasta shells according to packet instructions, drain well
Pour a layer of tomato sauce over the bottom of an ovenproof dish
Place a layer of shells on top, dot with mozzarella and sprinkle basil and Parmesan over the top

Add remaining pasta shells and pour the remaining sauce over the top
Sprinkle over the remaing Parmesan

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes
Remove foil and bake for a further 5 minutes
Serve immediately

'You may have the universe if I may have Italy.'
- Giuseppe Verdi

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxx