WE MADE REAL F*CKING TOMATO PASTE!!!
If you’ve been following along, it’s 🍅TOMATO SZN🍅 month at The Sobremesa and I’m sharing all things tomato after my time spent living with a Nonna in Sicily this summer.
And tomatoes are a big freaking deal there.
The land just seems to looooove growing them. Tomatoes were truly bursting at the seams during the month of July (aka..heaven?) Nonna’s garden alone produces hundreds of pounds a day. And while we ate tomatoes constantly (not mad about it!) there was just no way to eat them all before they withered away to mush (the audacity!)
Not surprisingly, the Sicilians have considered this dilemma, and have come up with many ways to preserve the tomatoes so that we can continue to enjoy their sweet nectar during the cold sad winter months and not waste a single mushy drop.
And tomato paste (salsa seca) is one of these several amazing ways.
I love this video I made that documents the process. In it, you’ll hear Paola describe in her own words why it’s such an important heirloom tradition and why it also just tastes better.
Coming from someone whose only experience of tomato paste is the shit that comes out of the jar, I was truly losing my mind watching her make this.
And it’s just tomatoes, salt, the blazing Sicilian sun, and.…time ☀️
Paola boils the tomatoes and then emulsifies them with an immersion blender. Adds salt.
She then passes the tomato juice through a metal sieve (passed down from her mother - more on that below) to remove the seeds. She does this directly on top of a simple wood board (that’s balanced on a railing on her patio) where it gets peak sun exposure.
The tomato liquid then simply sits out on this board until it gets hardened under the hot af sun.
Every day, someone would come check on the paste to mix and flip it around.
About 5-7 days later - it was tomato paste.
Participating in this process was such a reminder in patience and reverence.
Remember patience?
…….as in the opposite of instant gratification?
It takes days and lots of care in order to make this. Very different from opening up a can of 99 cent tomato paste. Which would for sure be easier to do to, let’s be honest.
But - you are rewarded with a much richer and deeper flavor. Not to mention a pure reverence of the land, the ancestors who did this process for generations before you, and these tomatoes you picked and then processed by hand.
Even the metal sieve that Paola uses to separate the tomato juice from the seeds is such a reminder in reverence. Her mother got that sieve as a wedding gift and she then passed it down to Paola. So this tradition of making tomato paste in just that sieve alone was maintained in her family every single summer for over 80 years. Can you imagine?!?
Alas, today’s newsletter won’t include a recipe. I wouldn’t recommend making tomato paste yourself (especially if you live in the city). First of all, the sun is so strong there so it just works better. Second of all, I imagine it would turn into a restaurant for bugs /mice. For some reason those….didn’t come around the paste in Sicily …I don’t really know why…. but grateful they didn’t fuck with our paste…..
But I do recommend taking a second to really appreciate the next can of tomato paste you open.
Love you mucho,
xo
Tessa
Paola is a goddess!! The amount of knowledge and experience that she has!! I really wish I could do the paste here too and enjoy the tradition, but like you said, the bugs the mice and other animals it will attract is more than enough to be discouraged !! But I will always remember what you have shared with us. Thank you so much for sharing your trip and your experiences.