The Traditions Of San Marzano Passata
When placed next to commercial tomatoes, the San Marzano might be mistaken for a new type of pepper. The tomato has a unique sausage shape that gives it a fleshier fruit and fewer larger seeds than most tomatoes and therefore makes it a perfect sauce tomato. In fact, this Italian treasure has drawn big groups of family and friends together for generations during the fruits peak season in July and August to bottle crates of San Marzano passata.
Different in texture from tomato paste and tomato sauce, passata is a rich and chunky sauce sought after by cooks for use in recipes as varied as soups, stews, and pizza toppings.
Passata (which is Italian for pass through) is made by pressing the San Marzanos through a mouli (a sieve that processes large amounts of tomatoes) or a simple food mill. The goal is to remove the large seeds and skin and the process can be done on a large or small scale.
Whether the pressing and sieving occurs before or after the tomatoes are cooked, and if cooked, for how long, are points of debate, as is whether herbs like basil are added to the passata. However it is made, most cooks agree that cooked passata offers a richer sauce, and uncooked passata can add the right texture for their recipes.
Seeds for the tomato are widely available, but true passata is made from tomatoes grown in the San Marzano commune in southern Italy. The seed made its way to this region from Peru, and has become the pride of the region. You often see a DOP stamp on commercial cans of products made with San Marzano tomatoes. This is the Denominacion de Origen Protegida or Protected Denomination of Origin stamp given when the tomato is grown according to agricultural laws in Italy. You can still try to plant seeds and try your hand at smashing up a batch of passata di pomodoro as it also known from a backyard crop.
The fare la passata was once a common, late-summer coming together where family and friends gathered happily to make and put up large amounts of the sauce. They looked forward to having passata available year round. With all the commercial brands and varieties of passata available today in supermarkets and specialty food stores, the fare la passata is not celebrated so much.
Lots of choice today: fresh, homegrown passata, or select from the offerings at your grocers. A note of safety: If you plan to have a fare la passata and put up your own bottles, please consult a canning guide and follow proper procedures for sanitizing and sealing the bottles.
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