A Little Taste Of Tuscany!

BUONGIORNO! Come Stai? 

Why am I typing to you in Italian? (and just quietly, even typing it I probably have a horrible accent! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Well ... We've been enjoying a little taste of Tuscany this week in the Meares' Madhouse ... well ... my version of Tuscan tastes, anyways. :0) Let me explain ...

You see ... last weekend when we were off on a road trip to Childers, we drove past a little roadside produce stall that had 'seconds' tomatoes for a REALLY good price ... like ... two plastic shopping bags full of ripe tomatoes for just $5 really good price!! And that very attractive offer just couldn't be passed up.

For a while now, I've been leaning more and more towards wanting to 'make our own' of as many pantry basics as possible ... for a few reasons. The biggest is ... home made just TASTES better!! :0) Wouldn't you agree? The second is that there is usually a bit of a money-saving element to making your own. The third, and one that is becoming more important to me, is ... I know EXACTLY what goes into it!!

So ... those tomatoes came home with us and I embarked on a ... rather experimental! ... journey to make our own tomato/pasta sauce to bottle and pop in the pantry to be enjoyed through winter. Step one was to find a recipe. Hmmm ... easier said than done! Some of the recipes I found thanks to Mr Google had odd ingredients. Others had tinned ingredients ... which rather defeated my purpose! Finally ... I called upon my blogging buddy Toni Alexander for some direction, as I knew she had made fresh tomato sauce earlier in the year ... Thanks Toni! :0)

Thus informed (roughly!!! :0) ) Mum and I set about making our own version of Tuscan Tomato Sauce.

Step one ...

... chop the tops off the tomatoes (and cut out any slightly marked or gooshy bits that had relegated them to the 'seconds' classification in the first place), peel and roughly chop some onions to scatter through the tomatoes, peel some garlic and pop it amongst the tomatoes, too. Then scatter LOTS of yummy freshly picked garden herbs all over the tomatoes, scatter some sea salt and freshly ground pepper over them all, before sloshing some olive oil over the lot and popping them into the oven to roast for half an hour ... or so! Until the skins on the tomatoes start to peel away and the onion and garlic start to brown up. And ... AAAAAAAHHHHH!!! The gorgeous aroma that wafted through the house as these were roasting away! You really did feel like you could be in a villa in Tuscany with someone's Nona cooking up a storm while the summer breeze blew gently through the olive groves! :0) Yes ... my vivid imagination DOES get me into trouble from time to time ... but it can also be a lot of fun! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Step two ...

... peel the skins off the tomatoes ... they came away pretty easily after the roasting. Pop the tomatoes, onions etc into a big pot and pour all of the liquid from the roasting pans in, too. Do you like my pretty 'retro' enamel pot? It was my Grandma's and was perfect for sauce making. :0) I brought the pot to the boil, then turned the heat back a bit to keep it simmering away nicely for an hour or so, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes had softened up. I then used my barmix to blend the tomatoes etc into a deliciously thick sauce ready to bottle.

Step three ...

... use a small heat-proof jug to transfer the DELICIOUS smelling sauce into bottles and seal them up. I left mine sitting on the kitchen bench to cool and it was very satisfying to hear all the lids 'popping' as the vacuum seal kicked in. Oh ... and even though I hid them for the photo, we've labelled the bottles with the date the sauce was made and the ingredients.

Now, I know there are bound to be some REAL Italian Nonas out there muttering at me in Italian that I have NOT made a true Tuscan tomato sauce ... but I don't mind. :0) We've actually made two batches of the tomato sauce now, cos the first one was so delicious that we went back to get more tomatoes! :0) We've used it with lean mince to make spaghetti bolognaise, with some diced bacon, mushrooms and Kalamata olives over spiral pasta and just by itself over some cooked pasta ... and each version was DELIZIOSO!

When all is said and done, I feel pretty chuffed that I've used fresh seasonal produce with no added colours or preservatives that we can enjoy through winter when tomatoes are more expensive (and not always Australian produce). You can bet that in the future, I will be looking for more ways to take advantage of fresh, local seasonal produce to preserve in some way for 'later' when its season is over ... you know ... like our great-grandmothers used to do. (Who knew our great-grandmas were so clever?! Tee! Hee! Hee! 

We're going to a big farmers' market next weekend in our local area, so I'm hoping to get some more ideas there. Who knows what country my home cooking will take me to next! Frankly ... it's about as close to an overseas holiday as we'll be having any time soon. :0)

Right ... off to hang some washing ... and decide what's for lunch cos all that talk about food has made me HUNGRY! :0)

Before I go, though, a little reminder to the OPAM gals ... Sweet Peg has done the prize draw this month and the winners are listed on her blog ... remember to always check in with both of our blogs, as we alternate doing the prize draw. And while you're visiting my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime, please send her cyber hugs and support, as she has just lost her dear mother. Big hugs to you, my Sweet Friend! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS