The summer season is the perfect time for homemade preserves: jams, canned fruit, and specially tomato sauce. Abruzzo, in August, is the month of “homemade tomatoes”, it is a ritual, a liturgy identity linked to share and pass on.
Until about fifty years ago, we used to make the concentrated, rather than the sauce: tomato was passed with a simple blender, the compound derivative was lying on a floor and left to dry in the sun.
The concentrated, dense and full-bodied, is kept in bottles with corks or earthenware container.
But how to make “homemade tomato”?
We usually choice San Marzano tomatoes, strictly local.
Thoroughly wash the tomatoes and remove the damaged parts.
Boil them in a large pot, what is commonly called in Abruzzo “callara”.
The boiling takes a few minutes.
Tomatoes are engraved to squeeze out the excess water.
After about 10 minutes tomatoes are dry and ready to be passed.
The result is a typical sauce, then add salt.
It’s time to wash the basil, it will be inserted into each bottle.
Density control, the sauce is ready to be bottled.
It’s time to closures.
Closed every single bottle, you put everything to boil for 30 minutes.
The bottles will be removed from the pot when the water will be cold.
The sauce is ready to dress your pasta!
