Taste of Italy

Imported San Marzano plum tomatoes are my go-to variety of canned tomato for cooking. Sweet and meaty without too many seeds. A few years ago, I added a few of these Italy-originated beauties to my summer vegetable garden.

I fully understood these would not taste like the true San Marzanos that grow in ideal conditions in southern Italy. But, so far, I’ve been very happy with the taste and quality from the San Marzano tomatoes grown in my Hamptons raised beds.

In early April, I usually start all my tomato seedlings indoors under grow lights in cell packs. As they grow, they are transplanted (at least once) to larger pots before planting out in the garden in mid-May. This year, I started the seeds several weeks earlier than before (March 22nd) and planted out really large plants. This early start increased my vegetables’ health, height and production.

So a last week I harvested a good number of ripe San Marzano tomatoes. With these, I made a classic tomato sauce using a simple recipe of celebrated, Italian cook Marcella Hazan.

If you’d like to try this, the recipe is really easy:

Wash and half lengthwise two pounds of ripe plum tomatoes
Simmer them in a covered nonreactive saucepan for 10 minutes; uncover and continue to simmer for another hour and half, stirring occassionally
Puree tomatoes through a food mill into a bowl to remove seeds and skins
Rinse and dry pot; then sauté ⅓ cup each finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery in ½ cup olive oil. Sauté until onions become translucent.
Then add tomato puree, two teaspoons kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar and a pinch of black pepper to saucepan with onion mixture.
Gently simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes
I pureed the finished sauce using a hand immersion blender for a smoother sauce
That’s it!

Looks like I’ll continue to have big harvests for a few more weeks so I’ll try to find more delicious uses for these tasty tomatoes. Until next time, ciao.

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