Truly one of my favorite memories from my time spent living with a Nonna in Sicily this summer was picking tomatoes with an 80 yr old man.
July in Sicily is peak tomato season…..and THIS July, Sicily was experiencing a record-breaking heat wave where most days reached around 105F 🥵
Nonetheless, the tomatoes were PEAKING. Like….several-hundred-perfectly-red-plump-tomatoes-budding-in-Paola’s-garden kind of peaking. So, heatwave or not, these baddies were ripe and needed to get PICKED.
Unless you wanted to turn into a tomato yourself, the best time to go pickin’ was early in the morning or early in the evening. Paola, being the early birdie she is, usually had 2 huge buckets full by 8am. I opted to go at sunset, which was probably one of the most magical experiences of my life. The gradient of pinks and oranges descended over the sky. And club music from the beach club down the street set a major *vibe.* Should I open NYC’s hottest new club - a tomato farm? 80yr olds automatically get vip access? lmk.
As you probably know, tomatoes are a huge part of the Italian diet (and we salute them!) I was amazed to see how many ways Paola knew how to prepare and preserve them. Paola’s garden was bursting with genovese, plum, and cherry tomatoes. Each variety best suited for a certain dish or preservation method. It was amazing to witness.
Lucky for us, it is currently TOMATO SZN here in the states! No need for you to start a garden and grow + pick you own…. but I do suggest heading to your farmers’s market and grab a haul while the gettin’ is good. I don’t want you to waste one drop of this summer’s candy because there is a lot of good good we can cook up.
🍅🍅So, this month of August, I’m starting a TOMATO SERIES and going to show you some of these beautiful recipes + preservation methods I learned in Sicily. 🍅🍅
During my time in Sicily, I ate pasta (at least) 2x / day. So when I got back to the States, I told myself I’d chill a bit on the pasta. Well….that lasted about 7 days. The word “withdrawal” might be strong, but I sure did crave pasta again…hard….
One of my favorite things that Paola made was quite honestly a simple pomodoro sauce. Pomodoro sauce is just tomatoes, garlic, and basil. It’s so fresh, so tasty. But of course, some of the most simple of dishes require the highest quality of ingredients and (corny alert 🚨) lots of love. No covering up with with fancy sauces or ingredients you can’t pronounce - there is nowhere to hide.
If you tuned into my last newsletter - I explained that Paola actually doesn’t use recipes at all. There’s nothing written down, no measurements. She’s known to just throw in random extra ingredients last minute on a whim. She cooks by intuition. Her family even jokes that each time she makes the same dish it tastes different. And let me tell you - it always tasted amazing.
It’s my biggest culinary lesson from her. As someone who lovessss a damn recipe (and regularly shares them here), it was a reminder that sometimes we need to ditch the damn recipe. Lean into trusting our senses. Trust me, it took me a long time to trust my senses while I cooked. But when I let go of that *control* it was not only more rewarding to know I pulled it off, but also more FUN! Remember fun while cooking? I feel like there’s a life lesson buried in here but I’ll let you reach that one on your own : )
With the influx of what feels like millions of cooking influencers - we are constantly bombarded with people telling us what to make and how to make it (guilty….me being one of them😳).
The problem is that you’re only seeing the picture-perfect end result (paired with a perfectly edited video that makes it seem “soooo quick and easy”). Gone are the days of the popular cable cooking shows where my favorite hosts like Julia Child would admittedly fuck up from time to time, assure you that sometimes you will forget an ingredient, or warn you that it’s okay for it to come out looking funny. These days - cooking influencers have about 1 second to grab our attention and then 90 seconds to show us how to make something. Pressure is on.
So let’s just call it all food porn.
While they are extremely aesthetically pleasing and entertaining, I think it sets unrealistic expectations of the cooking journey and how the dish should actually look. Not to mention how it should taste.
I mean the emotional journey alone, wow. When you scream *SHIT* after flicking sauce on your new white shirt (I knew I shouldn’t have worn that). When that banger from 2004 comes on your Spotify shuffle just as you’re adding salt and it makes you flick your wrist *just so* and shake your booty *just so* (to the window to the wall, indeed!) When your guests take that first bite and you hold your breathe in anticipation hoping they like it but anticipating they will hate it (already prepared to say “it’s not my best!”)
Cooking can actually be very messy and manic. And this is what makes it …..a fucking blast.
I think all of these videos have put more pressure on all of us to try to re-create the exact same thing. And let me tell you, that is impossible. And it should be impossible! Real home-cooked food can/should look and taste different each time. Not to mention it can be ugly! That’s how you know you’re really doing it with your heart and soul.
Can we just accept this as part of the process and take the pressure off?
My new mission is to give “recipes”’””’ instead of “recipes.” I want to give you the tools to interpret them in your own ways and have fun with it. I believe in you!!!!
So, as such, I can best describe this as an interpretation of Paola’s pomodoro sauce. Based off watching her make this dish many times (and eating it many times) and then recreating it myself in my Brooklyn kitchen one hot summer evening when I had 8 friends coming for dinner in about 2 hours.
At the base, it’s just tomatoes, garlic, and basil. I decided to add the oregano and bay leaves from Paola’s garden that she gifted me (packaged in used old pasta bags, like the true Nonna she is who doesn’t throw away a damn thing!)
I’ll give you some measurements as a guide, but please don’t follow this to a tee. Try tasting it as you go.
How’s the flavor? Try adding more salt or pepper. Add some depth by adding oregano or bay leaves. Or oooo what about chilli flakes to make it a lil spicy?
How’s the consistency? Is it too watery? Let it simmer for longer. Is it too thick? Try adding some water.
As a bonus, I’m also adding in a simple recipe for pan-fried eggplant. Eggplants were also in-season in Sicily, and so Paola usually served these on the side to DIY put on our pasta. It adds another texture and creaminess. I loved it so much.
So Nonna it up, invite a few friends over, and put a big ass pot of spaghetti pomodoro in the middle of the table with a side of fried eggplant (if you please). Don’t forget the formaggio! Grab a block of parmesan and put it out with a microplane grater for everyone to cheese it up.
Pomodoro Sauce (serves 4-6)
Ingredients
2lb tomatoes: I used a mix of cherry & genovese - but either of these or plum will work
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4-6 basil leaves
1-2 tablespoons of salt
Few cranks of pepper
Optional: 1 bay leaf, sprinkle of oregano
Let’s do it!
Put tomatoes in a pot and cover with water.
Boil until the skin of the tomatoes start to peel and it will easily pierce with a fork.
With a slotted spoon, remove tomatoes from the water.
Using either and immersion blender, blender, or food processor, blend until well smooth.
Paola had a very cool machine to then remove the seeds….. I don’t and I’m assuming many of you don’t either. I kept the seeds and that was quite alright with me. I think Paola would be okay with that too :)
In a large pot, coat the bottom with olive oil.
Add garlic and sauté until soft and fragrant.
Add the sauce.
Add basil and salt and pepper to taste (now is also the time to add oregano and bay leaf if you’d like).
Simmer uncovered on low for at least 30 mins and up to a few hours, stirring occasionally (it will get thicker so add water if it’s getting too thick).
Fried Eggplants
1 eggplant, Cut in ¼ rounds
Coat each slice lightly with flour.
In a skillet, (bonus if you have a cast iron), cover the bottom very generously with olive oil. Fry in olive oil and turn only when golden brown (will need lots of olive oil, add more when you flip over.
Season only after they are finished frying as adding salt before will extract too much water. I also added a sprinkle of oregano at the end.
Serve on the side for guest to DIY add to their pasta as they’d like.
Baci (kisses) 💋
Tessa